Naruto: A Killer Born
by makinnasty1
Summary: After Sakura kills Sasuke she struggles to forgive herself and Naruto is no help at all. Naruto starts focusing more and more on training avoiding Sakura every chance he gets while Sakura goes to hell and back for power. Sinking into the darkness the same darkness Sasuke sunk into. It was her and Naruto against the world. Sakucentric. Eventual Narusaku. Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

**Author notes: Another new story! I make new stories to get my brain flowing with inspiration. I'll update Shattered whenever I have free time which I almost never get. This starts on that episode where Sakura tries to kill Sasuke but fails and she gets saved by Naruto episode 215. I hope you enjoy this story. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto if I did chapter 700 would if been the wayyy better.**

She stood there in shock her fiery green eyes dull from what she just did.

Sakura Haruno just lodged a poisoned kunai into the last Uchiha back. Her hand wouldn't stop pushing it deeper and deeper in him.

It was like she was possessed she never even heard his screams of pain and agony. His blood dripped down her hands the blood felt like it was burning her flesh and bones.

She just stared ahead of her eyes wide but they were just dead. The Uchiha walked forward away from the kunai in the process trying to hold his guts in.

Before Sasuke could fall to his knees Kakashi caught him. "Sakura." As if her name was like a trigger her blank eyes once again shined bright until she realizes what happened.

"Sasuke-kun?" Her eyes wandered down to her hands which were covered with his blood almost looking black. Sakura's hands shook tremendously and her eyes were moving fast frantic as she came to realize that the last Uchiha blood was on her hands.

"Wha. ?" She knew who that voice was and it only made things worse the fast beating of her heart and the churning of fear in her gut let her know that bile was coming up but she swallowed it back down.

The burning sensations coming from the Kyuubi chakra only made her flinch but she didn't move from the spot she stood on.

"Sak-ura." She finally looked back at her bleeding teammate who was currently dying in their sensei arms.

Even when he was dying he still manages to have that sick twisted grin on his face. "You weren't suppose-" he coughs up his blood into the water they were standing on. "Suppose to kill me."

Her shoulders shuck violently she was going to cry the tears stung and her vision blurred. "I know." She dropped to her knees and crawled over to him. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please! Forgive me Sasuke-kun!" She reached him and grabbed his right hand.

"Annoying." Sasuke lifted his left hand painted with his blood and put a piece of pink hair behind her ear. He caresses her cheek leaving his blood on her face.

He could feel Naruto run over towards them trying to control his anger. "Dobe you were always my best friend become Hokage and don't make the same mistake I did." Naruto's suffocating chakra subsided and he was now looking up with tears cascading down his whiskered cheeks.

"Take care of them Kakashi." Kakashi looked down at the Uchiha and couldn't help but feel like he failed everyone.

The last bit of life Sasuke had been drained from him quickly but before he departed he spoke one last thing. "Thank you."

"Sasuke." Naruto said grievously breaking down right next to Sakura. He clenched his jacket where his heart was currently beating a sad melody. His once vivid azure eyes searching the sky for a sign or a way to bring his best friend back.

Team 7 would never be the same.

And Sakura Haruno was the cause of it with his blood on her hands. It was like poison to her and she felt it go up to her mind. Shutting almost every neuron in her brain down.

Her hand slipped out of Her dead teammate's hand. Losing control of her chakra she sunk into the abyss of her mind and the blue water.d


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1: Lingering darkness **

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.  
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ticking of a clock was the only sound in the room. It was dark and cold.

_Tick tock tick_

A pink haired girl stood in the front of the mirror with dark circles under her eyes. The girl was showing signs of insomnia.

**"Sakura."** The girl whose name is Sakura slightly flinch at the sound of her name coming from his mouth.

**"Sakura look at me."** She never did look at him she just stared at her pale face probably from the lack of sunlight.

**"I don't know why you're being so annoying. Just look at me."** She could practically hear him smirking however that works but she still ignored him.

**"Hn, you're being unnecessarily difficult today Sakura. Why?"**

Once again she ignored him it's been one month since she killed Sasuke Uchiha and she was still paying for it. She thought that for a minute she was going crazy when she kept hearing the former Uchiha voice, but then he turned into an image.

Tsunade worried that she might have psychological problems and even had Ino try to enter her mind a few times whenever she visited. After those visits she never let anyone else in, but she was still waiting for that one person.

_Naruto._

Sakura hasn't seen him since that horrible day. If she could remember that red haired girl she healed stayed in the village.

**"Sakuraaa."** He calls her name in a sing song tone. He starts laughing not even trying to stifle it.

"Why do you keep hunting me?" He stops laughing and stares hard at her back.

_He wasn't real._

She kept telling herself but her mind wouldn't listen she couldn't even trust it. Sakura didn't know what was real and what wasn't.

**"So she speaks."** Sakura clench and unclench her fist. "Just answer me damnit!"

Her familiar temper was coming back to forefront.

**"Hn are you that stupid Sakura and here I thought Naruto was the stupid one."** He was siting on her bed looking at her reflection.

**"You killed me. I'll never forgive you. It wasn't supposed to be yo-"** a fist connects with the mirror shattering it into million pieces. The pinkette turned around to give him a piece of her, but he wasn't there. Sakura moved her gaze to the ground where a small pool of her red blood was.

It reminded her of that day.

000000

Tsunade a long haired blonde who had the biggest bust ever was currently drinking her favorite beverage sake. One of her many anbu showed up in front of her desk one knee on the floor.

"What is it?" She casts a glance at the anbu.

"it seems that Sasuke Uchiha's body has gone missing from his grave."

Tsunade stood up and slammed her fist into her desk causing it to collapse. "What!?"

00000

Punch, kick, rasengan, punch, again, uppercut, dodge, dodge, and kunai. These were the only thoughts that Naruto Uzumaki let enter his thought nowadays.

The blonde was often invited to hang out with his friends but he always turned the down. Possibly angry or afraid that she was going to be there.

Naruto could barely sleep terrified that his former best friend would haunt his thoughts.

Naruto never even took a break from his training it was the only way to avoid useless thoughts.

"Hokage-sama has summoned you." An Anbu that just appeared told him. Naruto nods and he or she was gone, hopefully it's a mission. He thought to himself.

0000

When Naruto walked in his face was probably the sourest scowl of all times.

His old team was here.

Sakura never even looked up at anyone she just stared at her wrapped hand. The bandages had her blood seeping through them. She would of healed it but medical ninjutsu required concentration which she didn't have at the moment.

Kakashi stood there reading his usual perverted book, but everyone in the room could tell that he wasn't even reading it. He was lost in thought which he found himself during alot lately.

Naruto walked in and closed the door behind him. He leaned against the wall next to the door hoping to stay as far away from his former team mates as possible.

The slug summoner sighed at how broken one of the strongest team in Konoha looked. This was going to be hell and she knew it.

"I have some bad news." She got no reaction out of them.

"it's about your teammate Sasuke." That raised two heads Naruto and Kakashi. What was wrong with Sakura?

"Sasuke Uchiha's grave is empty." Before anyone could say anything she raised a hand.

"before you'll jump to conclusions there's three possibilities a) he could of never been dead. Or b) Bounty hunters and c) Akatsuki.

"It's most likely Akatsuki." Kakashi murmurs being the first of the three to snap out of their stupor.

"Damnit why can't they just let him rest in peace!" Naruto was getting angry he didn't want to believe it but then again it was highly likely.

Sakura was moving away from Tsunade's desk and toward the door. All eyes were on her.

She finally reached the door but could open it she saw the problem. Naruto had his hand on it keeping it close.

"Where are you going?" Sakura stared at her hand on the door knob it was her bad hand she never bothered to heal.

"Home." She felt his eyes burn holes into her head but she just stared.

"Let her go." Tsunade says feeling the tension between the two and knew why heck everyone did.

Naruto removes his hand from the door, but he still continued glaring at the pinkette.

She swiftly made her exit with a throbbing headache she took one quick glance behind her and low and behold Uchiha Sasuke was sitting there with a sinister smirk.

**Author notes: I'll explain what happened she they got back to the village after Sasuke's death. Since Sakura was sort of brain dead. Also does anyone understand why I use that quote at the beginning?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2: Lightness fades into darkness**

"I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars."

Og Mandino

"Shit!" Kakashi stops controlling his chakra and lets himself fall underwater.

Kakashi swam towards his only female student. What's wrong with her why won't she swim back up. Is she unconscious?' Every thought that ran through his head, he grew more desperate to get to her.

Kakashi kicked his legs rapidly and pushed his arms determined to get the pinkette. Once he finally reaches her he slings her arm over his shoulder and swim back up to the surface.

"Naruto." The blonde looked more broken than he has ever seen him thus far.

"Why?" Kakashi almost didn't hear him, he didn't know what to say he related more to Sakura than to Naruto now.

"Why did she do it!?" Naruto's shoulders shake with each heart wrenching sob he released.

"Naruto I'm sure Sakura had her reasons for doing it... Just... Just don't jump to conclusions." Kakashi tried his hardest to cheer the broken blonde up and he hoped it was working.

"Naruto remember what Sasuke said. We'll honor those words." Kakashi lets it sink in before continuing. "We should go and give Sasuke a funeral, I'll seal his body." Kakashi makes a kage bunshin he instructs it to seal the body and retrieve Sasuke's teammate. The gray haired Jounin reposition his female student so it'll look more like he's giving her a piggy back ride.

Kakashi walks over to Naruto and puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I can't promise you everything is going to be alright, but we, as team 7 will get passed this together." Naruto stands up to Kakashi's relief he wasn't going to have to carry Naruto too. Naruto stays quiet having his hair cover his eyes from everyone's view. Naruto walks back to the top of the demolished bridge with Kakashi following close behind.

"Let's go I want to get back to Konoha by tomorrow morning." The only reply he got back was silence. Kakashi sighed, he wasn't used to the silence.

Xxxxxxx

"We'll make camp here and leave before sunrise." Kakashi set Sakura against the tree and starts setting up camp the clone gathers firewood and water while Naruto sits there looking depressed.

After a minute everything was set up and Kakashi was staring at Naruto. He thought about what he was going to do to help the both of them. They most likely had psychological problems like he did, maybe even shut their self's down from the people that's trying to help them.

Kakashi audibly sighed. "I'll take watch."

After another hour

Naruto finally passed out from exhaustion and stress. Kakashi didn't blame him.

Kakashi left his post to check up on Sakura she wasn't responding to anything he did. Which was taping her shaking her even lightly kicking.

"She's unconscious." Kakashi says aloud to himself.

"Don't worry, she's just fine. Give her time." Kakashi almost forgot about the red haired. Without looking at her he replied back.

"Yeah, I know."

Xxxxxxxx

Finally, after a long quiet trip they were finally back in Konoha. Kakashi took the still unconscious pinkette to the newly fixed hospital and him Naruto and Karin walked to also new Hokage tower was.

They heard that Tsunade was awake and the ninjas hoped that someone informed her about what's going on.

Xxxxxxx

A knock could be heard from the other side of the door. "Come in." Tsunade says.

The door opens and Kakashi, Naruto, and an unfamiliar red head walks in. When Tsunade doesn't see her student with them she could only fear the worst.

"W-what happened?" After she says that Kakashi debriefs her about what happened and Karin adding what happened with her and Sasuke along with the information that Sasuke killed Danzo.

"I didn't think Sakura would kill him." Tsunade's eyes were on Naruto the whole time looking for any sign of life.

"Let's go see how Sakura is during." She was about to leave when she remembered she had a non leaf ninja in her presence. "I'll take care of you later." In that instant she was gone and on her way to the hospital.

Xxxxxx

Tsunade bursts into the hospital and immediately engage the woman at the front desk. "Hokage-sama how can I help you?"

"What room is Sakura in?" The lady looks through her papers to find the room number.

"223." Tsunade nods and is off to see how her student was doing.

The busty blonde opens up the door to see an unconscious pink hair teenager.

She walks to the head of the bed and looks through her papers. What Tsunade read shocked her, she didn't even look to see who entered.

"Sh-she's bordering on the edge of brain dead."

"How long will it be until she wakes up?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm not sure and even if she does wake up, she'll most likely be mentally unstable." Tsunade looks out the one window in the small room solemnly.

Kakashi nods, then turns his eyes to the blonde. "Naruto are you going to be ok?" As expected, he doesn't answer Kakashi.

"Maybe if you talk ab-" Naruto quickly cuts him off.

"I don't need to talk about my problem and I damn sure don't need help from you or anyone else." Tsunade turns to the boy who is like a son to her.

"Naruto please don't do this now." Naruto finally looks up with blazing red eyes. "Do what Tsunade blame Sakura for killing Sasuke or blame Kakashi for not stopping her."

Kakashi looks back at his female student wondering what she would do in this situation.

"Naruto." Naruto opens the door and walks out well more like he slammed open the door and stormed out.

"Should I?" Kakashi asks. "No. We need to give him time."

Xxxxxxxxx

A week has gone by and still no sign of Naruto though they think he secretly visit Sakura.

It was midnight and someone slipped into Sakura's room. It was a blonde with bluish red eyes.

It was Naruto.

He tangles his finger in her bubble gum locks. "Sakura-chan I- I want to plunge a poisoned kunai in your gut and watch your blood run down my hands. I want you to feel the same pain Sasuke did. But I can't because I-I still l-love you." Naruto puts his head down on the bed.

"Why the hell are you torturing me like this. All I have to do is kill you then maybe, just maybe the pain will go away. But damnit there's always a but... I'll be lonely again without you. I hate you, but I love you."

"Maybe that's your problem." Naruto quickly gets up with a kunai in his hand prepared to kill the intruder.

"Who's there?" Naruto growls.

"Relax Naruto." Tsunade walks out of the darkness. Naruto sits back down in the chair near Sakura looking at her pale face.

"What did you mean by maybe that's your problem?"

"I mean that you should forgive her you know deep down in your heart, she had a logical explanation why and if she don't you'll forgive her out of love." Tsunade walked up behind him and set her hands on his shoulders. "You don't hate her. You're dealing with this the wrong way. When she wakes up she'll need someone to help her overcome the pain."

Naruto listened intently to what she said. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "I need time to think." He gets up and heads over to the window, but before leaving he says one more thing. "Don't tell her I visit her. If she ever wakes up." In the next second he was gone.

Xxxxxxxxxx

She was finally awake after 2 weeks of her being in a semi coma. "How do you feel today Sakura." A random nurse asked her already notified the Hokage that she was awake.

Her green eyes looked around the room, but seemed unfocused at the same time. She lifts up her hands in front of her face aware that they are trembling.

Sakura disconnects anything that was hooked on her and hops out of her hospital bed but falls to the ground. Due to not using her legs in 2 weeks. "Sakura!" The nurse attempts to help her, but Sakura just slaps her hand away. Since she couldn't walk, she crawled the pinkette was making her way to the bathroom.

Once there she opens the door and shuts it behind her. Quickly crawling to the toilet, she pukes in it. She dry heaves while attempting to flush the toilet. With the help of everything around her she stands on shaky legs and look in the mirror. In the mirror the scene played over and over. The blood the kunai the tears and then the chakra Kyuubi's chakra.

Her shaking hands turn on the water, she puts both of her hands under it. She washed her hands for what felt like hours, but only a minute passed. "Why won't it come off." She kept washing her hands as if something was on it. "The blood never goes away Sakura." Tsunade stood in the doorway as Sakura cried trying to wash off the imaginary blood on her hands.

"Why?!" Tsunade turns off the water and dries Sakura's hands. "No matter how much you try to wash off the blood it'll forever be on your hands. Let this blood strengthen you."

Xxxxxxxxx

Day 1

A couple of days go by and Sakura is now released from the hospital. People will be checking up on her from time to time to make sure she's ok.

"Aww, come on forehead you need to get some fresh air." Ino had a wide grin on her face

It was fake Sakura known Ino long enough to know whether her smile is fake or real. It's understandable before she left Ino was crying that we had no choice to kill Sasuke

She never thought that it would be Sakura.

"Just leave me alone." That was exactly what she did for a few days.

Day 5

"Sakura I know you want me to leave you alone, but Tsunade-sama wanted me to go in your mind to check your mental stability." Sakura stared at Ino with blank emerald eyes. She couldn't just tell her best friend she was hearing her former teammate's voice in her head.

"Ino I'm fine tell Tsunade that I'll be able to go back to the hospital in no time." Anyone could tell that her voice was pretty close to breaking any minute. Ino was about to give up, but she soon came to realize only one person could get her out of her funk and that person probably hated her guts.

"Ino before you go please answer me honestly." Ino nods and waits for her to tell her what's on her mind.

"D-Do you hate me for killing Sasuke?" By her tone she sounded like she was going to crack under the word and looked so fragile.

"At first- at first I did, but when I gathered the courage to come here I realized how broken you were and you need me more not to loathe you like..."

Sakura eyes turn a dull and dark shade of green. Anger took over her when Ino spoke those words deep inside of her she wanted to be hated by the blonde. "I don't need your damn pity! I don't need Tsunade's pity kakashi-sensei's pity and I damn sure don't need Naruto period!" Ino sighs and nods her head she gets up to leave but stops in mid step.

"One more thing, are you planning to attend the funeral tomorrow?" Sakura mind went blank as his voice replayed in her mind thousands of times. Ino took her silence as an answer and left quickly not aware of her inner mind breaking apart.

She curled up on the bed tears streaming down her pale cheeks. The voices in her head won't stop no matter what she does.

She knew it along with almost everyone of her friends. She was unstable her friends weren't around and the villagers praised the ground she walks on for killing the "traitor" as they call him. She was sure that no one other than Konoha 11 was going to be there.

And she wasn't.

Day 6

The day of his funeral and the more depressed she became. Sakura sat curled up at the same place she was yesterday. She wasn't planning to go to the funeral, she didn't even deserve to mourn for his death.

Her tears had long since dried up, she was exhausted from getting absolutely no sleep. A knock on her balcony door woke her from her depressed state.

Glancing up at the door, she saw her Sensei smiling and waving at her. She gets up on shaky legs and unlock the door.

"What?" Kakashi ignores the anger in her voice and walks in.

He turns back to her with a serious look on his face. "You're not going to the funeral?"

Sakura sits on her bed and puts her head in her hands. She lets out a long sigh. "No."

Kakashi doesn't say anything for a while. He saw how much distress she was in her hair was limp and her skin was unnaturally pale and she looked a bit thinner.

"Sakura I understand you don't want to go I probably wouldn't either, but you're going to have to face everyone someday."

Sakura felt her eyes sting trying to hold back fresh tears. "I know it's just so much easier to hide."

Kakashi sighed, he knew the feeling especially when he killed Rin.

He put all of his emotions into being a Shinobi and only let it all out when he reached his home. "I got to go Sakura just make sure to take care of yourself." He doesn't receive a reply so the Shinobi leaves out of where he came in.

X

It was quiet only a few people were there in black. The weather didn't fit how some of the people felt. It was sunny and cloudless.

Ino would often look around for Sakura hoping she would of at least shown up.

She saw Tsunade and Naruto all the way in the back chatting. Ino was aware of their unstable relationship since the death of the Uchiha. She just wished that he would at least talk to her, help her out but nope nothing.

She was afraid. Afraid that her best friend was going to be lost forever.

Releasing an audible sigh low enough that it couldn't be heard, she took another look around. It seemed that her mind automatically went back to her broken friend. It didn't help her case when the villagers praise her for her actions.

She understands that he was a missing nin and betrayed the village, but you would think that they would at least be less open minded about his death. She would even see gifts on Sakura's doorstep thanking her. It was a complete turn from how they treated the Uchiha years ago.

X

Naruto in the back of the small crowd looked down at his feet, his hair covering his eyes. He didn't even want to be at the funeral, hell none of his teammates even showed up.

"You still haven't made up your mind yet, huh?" He knew who was behind him and didn't like it one bit.

"What do you want Tsunade?" Tsunade narrows her honey brown eyes. She could feel the sadness coming off of him

"You're going to have to talk to Sa-"

"Dammit Tsunade if I don't want to see her face, then I damn sure don't want to hear her name. Every time I walk through the village someone is always mentioning her name... I'm so sick of it."

Tsunade didn't hold it against him for snapping at her. It seemed like Sakura was the talk of the village.

"Naruto you're not the only one who knows how it feels to bury your best friend. Be happy that you don't have to burrow any family."

Naruto shoulders shock violently from either anger of sadness she wasn't sure. She thought that maybe he was going to snap again, but when his shoulder slump in defeat she decides he isn't.

"Sasuke was family." Tsunade for once didn't know what to say to cheer the young ninja up.

"Team 7 is family." Walking up to them was Kakashi in his black funeral clothing.

Naruto laughs dryly, "yeah, we're one big happy family." He says sarcastically.

Kakashi sighs you can't say he didn't try. "She's not coming."

He receives a sharp look from Tsunade since she didn't want him snapping again.

Naruto's shoulder tenses up he knew who didn't show up. For some reason it only made him furious that she wouldn't even bother to show up.

"She's a mess in that dark room." Tsunade looks away sadly she didn't have time to check up on her own student and she couldn't help but feel bad.

Kakashi saw the guilty look on his Hokage's needed them most yet they wouldn't even go to her home to say hi.

After a while the funeral was finally over and everyone went home except for Naruto who now stood in front of the gravestone of his best friend and brother_._

No one wanted to stay longer than necessary. "Sasuke what do I do?"

"Chasing you down was like a goal that deep inside of me, I never wanted to end. I was fooling myself, it was like a game of cat and mouse. Team 7 is a mess. Heh you probably could care less about team 7 anyway."

Naruto sits down on the ground with his legs crisscrossed. "How do you prevent yourself from falling into the darkness?"

End

**This chapter has been long overdue, I finally got over my writer's block for this story. Writer's block on the third chapter how sad.**

**Next chapter Naruto and Sakura confront each other.**

**Next chap might be short depends if my creative juices are going.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3: Breaking insanity**

"Until we have seen someone's darkness, we don't really know who they are. Until we have forgiven someone's darkness, we don't really know what love is."

Marianne Williamson

Present

A week goes by after the funeral and the same day since the startling news and still she was receiving thanks and gifts from the villagers. It was sickening to think about and see.

Naruto was currently sitting in his usual seat at Ichiraku ramen. A bowl of miso ramen was placed in front of him a while ago but was untouched. Ayame and Ichiraku or even anyone who saw him in Ichiraku was worried especially since he never wasted good ramen. In fact, it was his first time there ever since that mission.

The newly built shop only comforted him with memories some with original team 7 and some with just him and Sakura. All he ever did was train and train. He saw how horrible Sakura looked earlier yet he couldn't find the reason to care. Naruto clenches his hand holding the chopsticks successfully breaking the wooden sticks. He was so deep in thought he didn't even notice.

"Man, I'm still glad that Sakura-san killed that traitor." A big guy said to his other big friend unaware of the blonde.

"Yeah I'm glad she did it was unexpected especially since everyone knows that she had a crush on him." Naruto was now paying attention to the atmosphere around especially the two men a few chairs down.

"You have to admit that traitor was a dumbass to think one of our finest kunoichi wouldn't kill him." The first guy starts chuckling with the other guy deciding to join in.

"I heard that she snapped, though."

"Hell, the whole team snapped its a shame such a beautiful woman losing her sanity. Wonder if that makes her a freak in the sheets." The other guy agrees wholeheartedly. The two were unaware of a dense dark chakra building up in the village's hero.

"That traitor got everything he deserved." Finally, Naruto could feel something snap in him. With that one statement, he lunged at the man who dared speak those words.

Naruto's shark nails dug into the man's wrist while his other hand tightened around his windpipe. The man was at least a jounin, but Naruto hardly cared. "I hate people who think they know who they're talking about." Naruto squeezes harder cutting off the man's air supply. He watched with red rageful eyes as fear passes through the jounin eyes. He was itching to end the man's pitiful life. "You don't know shit."

Naruto was surprised when he was thrown off of the scared to death man. He looks up to see Kakashi with a stern angry expression. The man he nearly choked to death with his death grip was gasping for air on the ground being checked on by his buddy.

"Get up." Just with those two words they sent Goosebumps and chills down everyone's back. It wasn't every day that the great copy cat ninja used that tone, especially to his own student.

Naruto's eyes flare up with redness he stands up angrily and brush pass the silver haired nin. Kakashi was on his heel every step he took. "Why?"

Naruto suddenly comes to a complete stop before turning to his sensei. "What do you want Kakashi?" Kakashi stared Naruto down pretending to not notice the drop of sensei to his name.

"Why did you almost kill that jounin back then?" Naruto scoffs he hardly would call what he was doing killing. "He deserved more than that."

Kakashi sighs wondering to himself what he did wrong with the team. "Tsunade-sama wants to see you." Naruto nods and begins walking the opposite direction that the Hokage mansion was.

"Naruto..."

00000000

Tsunade was stressed and out of sake the hospital seemed to be busier than usual. She had to find out what happened to the Uchiha body and what to do about it.

There was a single knock at her door before it opened without her consent. Standing in front of her was just the person she was not expecting to see.

"I want to go work at the hospital." Sakura stood there in front of her with her civilian clothes on. Now that Tsunade had time to observe she noticed how dull her eyes were. She had dark circles under her eyes from the lack of sleep. Her complexion was even paler than her usual skin. She had her bubblegum locks in a high ponytail. Her hair must have grown some over the month.

"Sakura you know I can't do that healing with chakra requires concentration and even from here I can tell you don't have it." Sakura looks out the window with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Please I can't sit in that room any longer I'm losing my mind." She never heard her apprentice voice sound so weak and broken before. It was enough to reconsider it since the were understaffed. Maybe instead of letting her work in the hospital she should just stick with D-rank missions. But they needed extra staff. Before she could make a final decision the door busts open catching the attention of them both.

Naruto stops where he stands the person he currently despised was standing right in front of him. "Hokage-sama what is it?" He pretends to not notice her existence and how horrible she looked.

"Naruto could you wait outside for a minute?" Naruto frustrated slams the door behind him. The loud bang causes Sakura to flinch.

"Tell you what Sakura I'll assign you a D-rank missions for now. You and I both know you're not stable for healing people even if we are low on staff." Sakura bows her eyes wandered to the place she last saw the vision of Sasuke at.

"Thank you Tsunade-sama." Tsunade gives her a curt nod as she watches her apprentice leave nervously.

Sakura was dreading coming face to face with the person behind the door. Then again it wasn't like he was ever going to speak to her anyway. Sakura gathers her courage and opens the door her eyes immediately snapped to the blonde. Naruto was currently leaning against the wall waiting for the meeting to get over with.

He looks up when he hears the door creak open. The two stared at each other for what felt like forever. She walked closer to him their eyes still glaring at each other.

Before she could even utter a word Naruto breaks eye contact and brush pass her. She had to admit it hurt a lot she wasn't used to being ignored like that especially by him.

**"He doesn't even want to acknowledge your existence."**

Sakura stops in mid step the voice was back and taunting her. The more she tried to ignore it the more persistent it got.

"I guess I have no choice but to finally go." Sakura once out of the Hokage mansion makes a beeline to the Uchiha burials.

She dreaded the idea of going to the burials, but she had to do something to appease her mind. She refused to believe Sasuke was some angry sprite stalking her and ruining her sanity.

A chill ran down her spine when she entered the graveyard. Truly depressing.

Finally finding the tombstone she was looking for she takes her time gathering her wits. The ANBU must have been ordered to put the dirt back. She lets the chilling breeze blow through her arid pink tresses.

Opening her eyes full of gathered determination she allows herself to mourn. "Is this what you wanted?"

She hoped that her idea would work despite the body being missing. It was kind of like the memorial stone. Some of the people on that stone was KIA without a body and yet people still came to give their condolences.

"I know I wasn't supposed to kill you..."

She rubs her tired red eyes before continuing. "I know you were n't supposed to die by my hands."

"I wanted to free you from your pain and suffering I could never forgive myself. I hate myself for doing it just please give me a break." Sakura collapses on her knees her eyes stinging with familiar tears.

"I'm a horrible human being all I ever do is cry I'm so sorry Sasuke-kun please forgive me." The tears she tried so hard to hold back ended up falling in the disturbed soil.

"I'm sorry." She puts her hands over her eyes to cover her sad state.

"I'm sorry." It was all she could say through her broken voice.

"Please forgive me." All she could feel was darkness there was no light that guided her out. She lost track of time weeping and muttering her apologies to an empty grave.

"The last thing you deserve is his forgiveness." Sakura gasp and whips her head around an angry blonde stood in her line of sight.

He had a look in his eyes that were unsettling. "Get up we have to talk." He walks away without even waiting for her to register his words.

Sakura stands on shaky legs and says one final goodbye to Sasuke before running to catch up.

Meanwhile, Naruto was thinking about what Tsunade told him earlier.

_Flashback_

_"Naruto how are you doing?" Naruto closes the door behind him trying to get her worn out face out of his mind._

_"Fine cut to the chase what do you want?" Tsunade brushes off the hostile tone he was still angry at the world._

_"I'm ordering you to go and talk with Sakura." Tsunade expected a temper tantrum from the young adult but instead received silence. She was slightly worried when he didn't even blink._

_"Why?" He asks might she add calmly._

_"You two need to work out your problems or your teamwork will fail and your friendship." Naruto slams his fist on the table snarling at her._

_"Why the hell would you ask me to talk to that-to that bitch!" There was the temper tantrum she was expecting._

_"I think you're mistaken Naruto I'm not asking I'm ordering." They both stared at each other Tsunade challenging Naruto._

_Naruto breaks eye contact and storms out of the room. "You have until tomorrow or I'm suspending you from going on missions." She adds before he completely leaves._

_"This is low even for your standards." With that he closes the door off to look for his teammate._

_"You'll understand later Naruto that it's for your sake and Sakura's."_

_"What is it Kakashi?"_

_Kakashi comes out of the shadows his usual book in hand. "He's losing himself."_

_Flashback end_

Sakura followed behind Naruto to where she wasn't sure. The plus of the situation was that he was willing to actually talk with her. Despite what he said to her earlier.

"Naruto please where are we going?" She didn't expect anything from him but silence still she asked maybe hoping to be shocked. She releases a drawn out sigh and follows him to wherever.

Naruto stops and if she wasn't trained to be a ninja she would have bumped into him. She looks around 3 poles stood in front of them. They were at the team 7's training ground. The most memories they had been there along with on the bridge.

"Why are we here?" The silence was her answer.

"..."

"We're going to talk." A lump forms in her throat. The training grounds was no place for anyone to just talk. It was a place where you fought out your problems, but she doubted it would help either of them.

"Alright, I guess I'll start first." Naruto nods and sits on the middle wooden pole.

"I should apologize to you for everything the whole mistreating you when we were little. Killing Sasuke-kun. And the whole confession, but please don't just hear me listen to me when I say that it wasn't for selfish reasons." She looked deeply in his eyes with honesty in those emerald eyes he didn't loathe so much as one month ago. He kept an indifferent look the whole time she looked into his soul.

"Then what is your reason."

"I didn't want you to keep having to suffer because of that promise and I wanted to free Sasuke-kun from his pain and suffering." She wondered if all that she was saying got through to him. "I miss my best friend."

Naruto turns away from her in favor of looking at the blue sky. He was deep in thought. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive you."

"I hate you and want to slit your throat with a kunai, but I can't. They told me to give you a chance to explain yet it sounds worst coming from you. He was like a brother to me and you murdered him. What the hell was your problem?!" Sakura flinches from his angered tone he was unaware how to go about his new discovery.

"You think you're the only person who cared about him there was also ME and Kakashi-sensei. He was also like family to us you're so selfish. You hate me for fixing a problem that was getting out of hand! I did something that you couldn't do! End his life."

The silence after her outburst was extremely deafening. "I realized I don't need your forgiveness just Sasuke's. If you bought me here to fight then let's go. Anything to lift that bitterness in you."

Sakura stumbles up from the ground and holds her fist out in front of her. She wasn't planning on fighting anyone so she didn't bring her gloves or kunai.

Naruto glares at her with so much emotion she reeled back a little. "Fine you want to fight then let's go."

Naruto pulls out a kunai and charges forward towards her. The kunai narrowly missed her only giving her a cut on the cheek.

This was the first time they fought with each other seriously. Naruto didn't like hurting her but today he could careless. His anger towards her was fueling the Kyuubi. She tries to punch him but misses when he jumps away from her.

"I'm selfish!?" Naruto sends out an army of shadow clones. Sakura grits her teeth while being hit with an onslaught of shadow clones. She punched them with her chakra infused fists making a large amount poof away.

"Everything you asked of me I did I even made you that damn promise of a lifetime despite my feelings! Which you gave no fucks about!"

Naruto ran through the crowd of clones who were creating a path for him. With the smoke, Sakura wouldn't be able to see where he was coming from. "IF ANYONE IS SELFISH IT'S YOU!"

With a charged Rasengan the smoke where he was coming from disappeared. Once Sakura noticed him coming it was already too late to dodge. The best thing she could do was brace herself for the attack or attempt to punch the ground. Not one to lose a fight especially one as important as the one happening currently. She punches the ground causing the earth to shatter and rise. Naruto wasn't able to see from the inside of the debris, but he could feel. And boy did he feel the punch she launched at his stomach sending him into quite a few trees.

"You needed to rationalize your selfish obsession with Sasuke-kun. It had nothing to do with me! You admitted that you only wanted to bring him back for your sake even after I didn't want you to keep that promise. You're obsessed with him that's why you tried so hard to bring him back! He tried to kill us repeatedly! What friendship is that!?" Sakura wasn't even aware of the things she was saying. All she felt was pure rage and no remorse.

"Thank you for making me realize I don't have anything to apologize for he chose his path and I **ended it**!" She was seething with red hot fury and needed to get away from him.

Sakura turned around to leave not acknowledging the state in which she was leaving the blonde.

Naruto felt the Kyuubi stir in him and his hot burning chakra engulf his body. The red chakra surrounds him like a cloak but with one tail.

Naruto roars loudly that it was possible the whole village could hear him. He crouches into a fox-like stance. Sakura feels the strong chakra full of anger and hatred roll down her spine.

She stops as the words she spit to him rolled through her mind. She didn't mean to say any of that, but now she was paying the price big time.

Sakura turns back to her teammate fearful of the sight. Before she could blink Naruto disappears and reappears in front of her his shark claws slash her face. The impact sent her flying through a couple of trees and left her with a bleeding claw mark on her face.

Before she was able to get up she felt a tight grip around her neck choking her. The amount of force he used when grabbing her neck pushed her deeper into the ground. she clawed at his wrist to free her from his grasp.

Sakura releases a strangled cry to her surprise Naruto lightens his grip just enough for her to speak. She saw the tears fall down Naruto's cheeks and hit her own cheeks. She put her hand back down on her side no longer wanting to struggle.

"Is this... what you... wanted Naruto?"

"Go on even if you kill me I'll forgive you. Death is what I deserve and it should be by your hands."

"Even if you kill me I won't harbor ill feelings toward you." Sakura felt her tears go down the side of her face. Even though she was in pain she still smiled up at him.

"Maybe if you do kill me I won't be able to fall into the darkness. I won't be able to lose my insanity."

"Even if you kill me I'll still** love you**."

000000000

**A/N: This is what I produced in one week. I rushed the ending since I'm going to be out of town for the rest of this week. I know what the hell just happened here? This is just the start of this story.**

**Edited: 9/25/15**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4: Scars**

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."

-Khali

"Even if you kill me I'll still love you." She meant every word she said and he could tell, but yet he still found himself not believing her. His hands tightened burning her skin with the Kyuubi's chakra. Before he could say or do anything a large piece of wood knocked him off Sakura. Sakura coughed as she gasp for much-needed air.

"Sakura are you ok?" Sakura glanced over at her teammates while still coughing. It stung each time she would cough or even swallow. She must have third-degree burns on her neck since it stung so bad to even breathe. She could also feel the blood from her cheek run down her face. When she tried to stand up she winces most of her ribs were broken.

"Shit. That only made Naruto even more angry." Just as she heard those words a growl could be heard coming from behind her.

Sai quickly drew a lion and it soon came to life. "What did you do to dickless?" Sakura couldn't even speak so she only shook her head. Even in a serious life or death situation still Sai wouldn't let that "nickname" go.

The lion stood no chance of even holding off Naruto. "What do we do sempai?"

Kakashi lifts up his Hitai-ate to reveal his Sharingan he was hoping to catch Naruto in a genjutsu before something worse happens. "You two get Sakura I'll try to calm down or knock out Naruto."

"Hai!" Sai and Yamato say in unison.

Sai as quick as possible draws a hawk to cover Sakura as Yamato tried to use his wood style to get her. Kakashi meanwhile uses the distraction Sai unintended for, to catch Naruto off guard. Naruto got down on his hands like he was a fox ready to pounce. And pounce he did.

With speed unimaginable he was so close to Sakura that she could feel the anger and hatred emitting off of him. She feared that her time would come to an end any second just as he was preparing to finish her off. He was being held back by wood.

Kyuubi Naruto growled and tore his hand from the wood breaking it into smaller pieces. Meanwhile, Sakura was wrapped with wood and pulled back to Tenzin bracing the pain in her ribs.

"Sai take her to the hospital we'll handle Naruto." Without a second thought, Sai drew a hawk and picks up Sakura's mangled form and takes off. The pain was too much for Sakura to bare and passed out on the way to the hospital.

Sai made sure to keep a tight and lock grip on her so she wouldn't fall off. He concentrated deeply on getting them to their destination. The wound on her cheek oozed Kyuubi's chakra like that time when they encountered Orochimaru.

In no time, Sai reached the hospital he carried Sakura bridal style into the building. Immediately nurses gathered around him asking questions and taking Sakura away from him. He requested that one of the nurses get Tsunade quickly having a feeling she was going to be needed. He briefly wondered how Kakashi and Yamato were handling the Kyuubi issue.

X

Kakashi just barely managed to dodge an attack to his torso. His breathing became heavy with the struggles of trying to contain Kyuubified Naruto. Not to mention the Sharingan was wearing him out and depleting his chakra.

"How're you holding up?" He asked Tenzo while keeping a close eye on Naruto. All Naruto did at the moment was walk around in circles on all fours like an animal on the hunt for its next prey.

Tenzo and Kakashi stood back to back trying to discern the situation. "Good for now but we have to do something or we won't survive this." Kakashi bit the inside of his cheek thinking of possible ways to defuse the situation without any problems or in their case serious injuries.

It seemed as if Naruto was some kind of caged animal waiting for the right moment to pounce. The two ex-ANBU men were quite perceptive and were able to foresee his attacks coming. However, there was no use in knowing if they weren't quick enough to move out if the way.

"I still want to do the genjutsu idea since Naruto is weak in that," Kakashi says to which Tenzo just simply nods.

One thing the two men felt was the adrenaline coursing through their veins. It was causing them to get a bit overzealous for something to happen.

Like a voracious beast, Naruto attacks them his chakra formed claws were up against them. "Let's go!" Kakashi goes directly towards Naruto with Tenzo flanking his right prepared to fire off his wood style. "Tenzo now!" Kakashi just before reaching Naruto hangs back allowing Tenzo to catch Naruto off guard with wood wrapping around his arms and ankles. The more that Naruto struggled the more he had to strain to keep the Jutsu together.

Kakashi with the speed of lightning appears right before Naruto's eyes his Sharingan flashing catching the chakra enshrouded Naruto in a powerful being caught in the genjutsu Naruto's body slumps against the wooden bindings.

Kakashi breathed out loud as he caught his breath for a minute or two. The multiple uses of the Sharingan drained him of his energy. "Sempai are you ok?"

Kakashi nods he observed Naruto's skin for any burns. He remembered when Tenzo told him what happened to Naruto when he reached the fourth tail. The first necklace was shattered into a million pieces leaving them with nothing to keep the Kyuubi transformation at bay. "My team is a mess."

Tenzo looks at Kakashi's back with sympathy he saw team 7 as his own team also and it was a shame that it was falling apart before their very own eyes. Team 7 was shattered mentally and physically.

"We should get him to the hospital the Hokage should most likely be there." Yamato nods in agreement. He picks up Naruto and carries him on his back.

X

The duo arrives with the unconscious blonde along with them. "Sai."

Said pale boy looks up from his drawing to find his two sensei with his unconscious teammate. Sai gets to his feet to greet them and talk about what was going on. "The Hokage just arrived and they are now treating Sakura's wounds."

Kakashi looked just a bit more relieved at the news that Tsunade was treating his only female student. He had to admit that to a certain degree she often kept the team together with her levelheadedness and smarts. He was afraid that if they lost another teammate then he wouldn't be able to forgive himself and Naruto wouldn't either. "Where's Shizune then?"

"Also treating Sakura." He should have known that but it didn't hurt to ask. Kakashi asks one of the nurses for an empty room to set Naruto in. She asks him to follow her and soon the trio were gathered in a white sterile hospital room looking at Naruto in deep thought.

An hour already went by with them waiting on Naruto to either wake up or hear about Sakura's status. The latter comes first after their second hour of waiting when Shizune and Tsunade come in both carrying the look of fatigue.

No one said anything for awhile until Tsunade was ready to inform them. They didn't want to overwhelm her with questions in her tired state.

"Everything is fine except those scars on Sakura's cheeks won't go away. It took us forever just to stop the bleeding all because the Kyuubi's chakra was leaked in the wound." The three listen intently to Tsunade hanging onto every word she said. They all had a good look of the bleeding claw mark on Sakura cheeks and it wasn't pretty. In fact, if they didn't know better they would say that Naruto purposely did that.

"Three scars guess he didn't have time to do the other cheek," Sai says earning a couple of glares for his blasé attitude

"Can we go see her?" Tsunade nods before exiting the room with a sorrowful expression. Everyone fills into Sakura's room to observe the amount of damage done. There were bandages covering where the scar was. They also saw bandages covering her neck where the hot fiery chakra burned her neck. Before they stopped Naruto he could have crushed her throat making it impossible to speak and swallow.

"The burns on her neck was also a bitch to heal, but it was much easier than trying to close the wound on her face. Almost every rib in her body was broken so she must have crashed into something with such force that it would do this amount of damage." Tsunade faintly touches the bandage that covered the scar on her face. She traced it from where it started to where it ended. "It's like longer versions of Naruto's whiskers it was a very deep and clean slice."

Her face scrunched up as if she was in agonizing pain. Then again seeing your very own student laying there unconscious was painful enough. "When will she awaken?"

This time seeing as Tsunade was in a deep trance Shizune answers him. "We're not sure but hopefully in a couple of days." Shizune saw a small inkling of red dot the bandaged and sighed. It was too good to be true to think that they stopped the bleeding, but it always came back for some reason. "Tsunade-sama the blood is back." Tsunade pulls back her hand to observe the bandaged wound and to her dismay Shizune was right.

"I'm sure you guys wanted to see how the scar look so I'll show you." Shizune helps lift the unconscious pinkette into a sitting position for better access to the bandages. As gently as possibly Tsunade removes the bandages. The scars became visible with each unwrapping.

Kakashi and the rest look on in shock at the scars. You can tell it's new because the skin on its edges has not started to curl up, with some pink flesh still showing through, and some fresh blood is still running down her cheek. He knew the feeling of having a scar that was going to be there forever like a reminder. He touches the scar that went over his left eye like he was in a trance-like state. He watched closely as Tsunade wipes the blood and pumps a bit if chakra into the wound. He could only imagine the amount of pain Sakura was going to be in when she wakes up. Kakashi looks at Tenzo and Sai both had solemn looks upon their faces.

He thought for a moment about how Sakura would react when she sees three long scars going across her cheek.

The silence in the room was broken when Sakura's parents come barging in with worried looks. They instantly look over to the bed where their daughter was getting treated. "S-Sakura honey your face." Sakura's mother cries as she gets closer to Sakura getting a better look at her face. Tsunade grunts shooting Kakashi a look that told him to get the couple out of the room.

"Uh maybe we should talk outside the Hokage really needs to focus." Kakashi gives them a pleading expression hoping they just do what he says without any problems. Sakura's father calms down his wife and takes her out with Kakashi to discuss what's going on.

"Sakura and her other teammate got into a small disagreement putting them both in here." Kakashi tried to downplay the whole situation just to calm the non-ninjas down.

Kizashi was more understanding then the emotional woman who continued to bawl in front of him. "Please just make sure she's alright for us." Kakashi and Kizashi hold eye contact for a while unspoken words said between the two.

Kakashi watches as the couple walks away from the hospital room with relief. It was going to register to them later that their daughter had three large scars on her face. He just hoped they didn't blame Naruto for it.

Kakashi walks back into the room to the sight of Tsunade wrapping bandages around her head leaving an area for breathing. Once the wrapping was done Shizune gently lays the pinkette down on the bed.

"We should go check up on Naruto next make sure he isn't awake yet. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with him." They nod and follow Tsunade to Naruto's room. The sight that greeted them was a still unconscious blonde tossing and turning on the bed. He must be haunted by nightmares every time he closed his eyes.

It was a time like now that Tsunade seriously hated her job. Tsunade saw the distraught on his face and she could only look on in sadness.

"It's like a Domino effect Uchiha falls and everything else collapse with it." Tsunade couldn't look at Naruto for too long afraid that her image of the boy would fade. Without any other word Tsunade turns to leave to dump her sorrows in a couple glasses of sake.

No one dared to stop her when she was in one of her moods they found it too much of a hassle and sometimes ended up with too many broken bones. All they could do was wait for either one of the two to wake up however long that could be.

Kakashi settled down on the window seal. Oh, how he loathe the hospital.

X

"Are you going to say anything at all?"

A couple of days past and Naruto already awoke when day one past. The trio had certain times when they would each watch over Naruto just for extra precaution. He had only said two words since he woke up and that was "Gomen Sakura-chan."

No matter who came in to visit he never said a word and that got everyone worried. They tried their best to keep what happened on the down low but in the end it was easy said then done. The villagers were beginning to worry and spread preposterous rumors.

It was the second day when things begin to look up when Sakura finally awoke from her slumber. Tsunade was the first to see her just to break the news to the disoriented girl gently.

X

"Sakura how do you feel." Sakura squinted up at her mentor the bright light blinding. She wasn't able to sit up due to her sore ribs. Her cheek stung along with her throat and although she was a bit disoriented it came back to her.

"Naruto..." Tsunade sets her hand on Sakura's shoulder giving her prized student some support. "Sakura I think you should see something."

Tired dull emerald orbs looked up at her and it almost pained her to do what she was going to do. She hesitantly reached inside of the drawer beside the bedside. Inside rested a single mirror.

She thought about how she was going to show Sakura the scar and how it would affect her. It's been a stressful past couple of days with taking care of the village and avoiding the council. Much to her distaste the council caught wind of what happened between the two teammates and she planned to first know what happened before discussing anything with the council. She had a really bad feeling that the council meeting wasn't going to go the way she wanted it to go.

Tsunade sighs it was now or never well until she gets released and decides to look in the mirror. Tsunade takes the mirror out and sets it on the bed. She gently sits Sakura up and fluffs her pillow. It was obvious that Sakura was in pain if the scrunched up look on her face wasn't enough indication. She felt guilty for practically forcing them to talk to each other. Tsunade shakes her head to clear her thoughts they were getting too distracting. She focuses all of her attention on Sakura face to gauge her facial expressions.

With steady hands, she slowly unwraps the bandages. Once it was completely off she stared for a few seconds. There was no going back that scar would either make or break Sakura and she didn't like either option.

Tsunade clutches the mirror in her free hand trying to will herself to show Sakura. "Shishou?"

Tsunade closes her eyes she didn't think that just showing someone their reflection would be so hard. But it was part of her job as a doctor she gave bad news on the daily basis. Tsunade lifts the mirror to show Sakura her reflection.

Sakura eyes slowly widened as her dark orbs traced the scar. A raw chasm of puckered flesh, paler than the tone of her skin, toughened by wind, grit and pain...a permanent reminder of her own failings. She shakily touches it with trembling fingers. "Wh-why won't it heal?" She knew why it wouldn't heal, but her mind wasn't allowing it to register. Tsunade looks away from the panicking girl in front of her. It wasn't like the hit on her arm it was with his claws, not tail and it was quite deep.

"It's permanent," Sakura said monotonously before Tsunade could say or do anything more the door to the room opens. Shizune comes in breathing hard trying to catch her breath. It looked as if she ran a marathon.

"Council...meeting...important...go...now...or else." Tsunade sighs she had to hear what happened first before she went in there.

"Sakura before I go tell me what happened between you and Naruto." Sakura stared at her pale reflection no emotion written on her face.

"We talked things were said then we fought. That simple." Tsunade nods understanding that she wasn't going to get anything else out of her. Tsunade and Shizune take their leave but not before throwing one last sad glance at her.

When she heard the click of the door shut the tears started. Once the first tear broke free, the rest followed in an unbroken stream. She threw the mirror to the other side of the room. It shatters into tiny pieces reflecting how she has been feeling ever since killing Sasuke Uchiha.

The ticking of the clock's second hand rang in her ears, followed by the sound of her broken sobs. She could hear the angst coming from her own choked voice. Her shoulders tremble with such force.

She wasn't sure what was the real reason she was crying whether it was because of the pain or coming to terms that the scar was going to be a reminder of what happened. It didn't matter all she wanted to do was cry alone in her dark room until she had no more tears to cry.

**"So Sakura you really don't regret killing me?"**

**A/N: I was pretty nervous about posting this chapter I kept looking it over and over even after that I know there's probably still mistakes on it and hopefully I'll have any takers to be this story beta reader.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 5: The Weak**

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong."

-William J. H. Boetcker

Tsunade walked briskly to the council meeting with little to no information about what happened between the two she called her children. She just hoped that she was fretting for nothing and that she had nothing to worry about. Then again that was naive thinking and she wasn't naive. Tsunade wished she had time to make sure Sakura was alright mentally just as she was physical.

It wasn't every day that you get a scar like that on your face by your own teammate. Tsunade looks back to see her assistant and longtime friend Shizune following close behind her. She wanted to send her back to Sakura just to check up on her and keep her...sane.

Was that really the right word to use to describe how Sakura is mental wise. The first time she woke up in the hospital she had an emotional breakdown and the time she came to her and practically begged for something to do.

"Tsunade-sama what are you going to tell them?" Shizune's voice cuts through her thoughts and the heavy and tense silence.

"I'll hear them out first see what they want and just hope for the best." Shizune nods agreeing with her wholeheartedly.

Tsunade felt that too much was happening too soon. From Danzo being killed by Sasuke Uchiha to her student killing the Uchiha, Sakura's breakdown, Naruto's anger and hatred, team 7 falling apart, Sasuke's body going missing. Now it was the fight between Naruto and Sakura both she cared about deeply.

Before going inside Tsunade turns to Shizune with a task in mind. "Shizune I need you to watch over Sakura while I'm in here just make sure she's stable." Shizune bows and goes off to the hospital to do just that.

Tsunade sighs and pushes the double doors open and to no surprise, she was the last one to arrive. Tsunade takes her place in the Hokage seat and mentally prepare herself for whatever was going to be thrown at her.

Xx

Shizune walked through the corridors of the hospital making her way to Sakura's room. She makes a quick stop at Naruto's room it was Kakashi's turn to keep Naruto company. Since Sakura just woke up no one knew if she was still unconscious or not. She thought that telling them both would put them at ease just a bit.

Shizune knocks on the door then slides it open. Shizune greets them with a smile. "I come bearing good news, Sakura is awake." Naruto's head snap to her his eyes stricken with worry, fear, and anger all swirled together. Kakashi wasn't looking at her but was gauging Naruto's reaction.

"I'll be by later." Shizune's smile drops completely being replaced with a tiny frown. She didn't know what she hoped for by telling them two maybe a bit of relief or sympathy. Instead, all she got was blank stares. Shizune leaves without saying a word to either of them.

Shizune slides open the door to Sakura's room and found it a mess and empty. Shizune runs to the open window to see if there was any sign of Sakura.

Without finding anything, she turns back to the messy room. A couple of thoughts ran through her head about what happened but in the end, only two made her worry.

Sakura was either kidnapped or she ran away. Both thoughts scared her tremendously. Shizune was about to run out of the room to get to the council meeting and inform Tsunade on what happened. But something shiny caught her eye and it made her feel sadness for Sakura.

It was the mirror shattered in thousands of pieces.

X

"What's this meeting about now?" Tsunade asked but she already knew the answer to it.

"Are the rumors true about Naruto and Sakura?" Tsunade turns to the head of the Yamanaka clan with a bored look.

"And what rumor is that?"

"Naruto used the Kyuubi's power to kill Sakura." Shikaku also had a bored expression seemingly having something else better to do than be at the meeting.

Tsunade was receiving expecting looks from all of the clan heads. They waited anxiously on an answer that she wasn't quite sure she had. "T-that's only partially true it seemed that Sakura must have said something offending to Naruto which caused him to mistakenly used the Kyuubi's power."

"We see but what could possibly make Uzumaki so angry that he allowed himself to use such power."

"I think anyone who has an inkling of who Naruto Uzumaki is, knows that Sasuke Uchiha is like an emotions trigger for him," Shikaku says making direct eye contact with Tsunade.

"Like the incident in Ichiraku ramen when Uzumaki attacked one of my clan members for mentioning Uchiha. Let's not forget the fact that the Uchiha's body has seemingly gone missing." Hiashi glares openly at Tsunade as he finally had a chance to discuss all of the happenings as of late. Murmurs of agreement were heard all around the room. Tsunade rubs her temples a headache fast approaching.

"Uzumaki is a danger to the village." Everyone quiets down and looks at the speaker that just said the thing that was on almost everyone's mind. Tsunade glares at Koharu.

"Naruto also defends this village with his life despite how everyone treated him as a child." A heavy silence settled over the room as everyone was lost in thought.

"That's fine and all Tsunade-hime but what about the frightened villagers." Murmurs once again broke out around the room.

"Tsunade-hime we will give you until next week to come up with something to do with Uzumaki. Any disagreements?" There were none at all but before she could object the door burst open to reveal her frazzled looking apprentice.

"Sakura is missing!" Tsunade shoots out of her chair and without another word goes out the door followed by Shizune.

"Tsunade-sama shouldn't we have the Anbu help us?" Tsunade keeps up her fast pace she clearly heard the question but neglected to answer. What Shizune didn't know was that Tsunade already had an idea of where Sakura could be. If she wasn't where she suspected then Tsunade would fear the worse.

In a matter of minutes, the two women arrived at the graveyard. A lone figure sat before a grave surrounded by many others. They slow down to a complete stop behind the bent over pinkette.

"Sakura you should be in the hospital." Tsunade's only response was her trembling shoulders. The grave only had Sasuke Uchiha's name on it. The grave was missing the usual Konoha symbol that was on every grave. Sakura pink tresses shielded her eyes but they already could tell that she was crying.

"My face..." She whispered quietly to no one. Tsunade shared a look with Shizune before both of them walk on either side of her. They both set a hand on each of her shoulders and sat down beside her. It wasn't much but as long as she was aware that they were there for her then it would do.

"If only I was powerful enough I could have defended myself. I could have prevented Sasuke-kun leaving..." Sakura pounded the ground repeatedly as she released her pent up emotions. She didn't feel strong enough to do anything and she just wanted to be able to be on the same level as everyone.

"I feel so useless...even when I think I'm doing something good it's never enough." Sakura pounding slowly decreases in force as she poured her heart out to them.

"Shishou I'm so tired." Sakura slowly looks up to her teacher her emerald orbs trembling with shredded tears streaming down her pale cheeks.

Tsunade couldn't meet the eyes of her broken student that cried before her. "He's in my head." Tsunade eyebrows scrunch together her confusion clearly shown. She wondered who it was that was in her head all Tsunade could tell was that Sakura's sanity seems to be snapping.

"Who?" Shizune asks her voice full of concern for the girl who she saw as a sister. A silence fell over the graveyard not even a single sob from Sakura.

"Sasuke..."

X

"How do you feel?" Naruto looks away from the window to stare blankly at his sensei. Kakashi doesn't know how many times he asked that same question and he was probably going to keep asking until he gets an answer.

"Your actions won't be swept under the rug. Even though you're the village hero if there's even a slight chance that the Kyuubi is taking over they won't hesitate to-" Kakashi stopped himself from whatever he was going to say when he saw a brief flash of pink out of the corner of his eye.

'Sakura?' He looked closer out the window but couldn't find the pink source he thought he saw. He didn't believe that he saw who he thought he saw. She should at least still be in a coma or so that's what Tsunade told him.

The door opens and in came Shizune with a bright smile that seemed to lighten the dark mood. Her words was a relief to him and he was glad that his female student was awake and ok. Kakashi looked closely at Naruto to decipher how the blonde was feeling. "I'll be by later." That seemed to be the wrong thing to say because one minute she was smiling than frowning.

He didn't pay much attention to the Hokage's assistant but he was telling the truth about visiting her later. Once she was gone Kakashi finally spoke up to the teen. "No one expected you to fly off the handle like that."

"..."

"How else am I suppose to react when your best friend kills your brother."

"He was dangerous and could have killed you both."

"I was willing to die alongside him if that's what it took to clear his roaring thoughts and dark intentions."

Kakashi shook his head the way Naruto was speaking he couldn't say whether it was in his character or out of it. He always did go to such lengths to save anyone and Sasuke was no different. Then again the way that Naruto is dealing with Sasuke's death is over the top.

"Dark intentions huh?" Naruto doesn't respond he was contempt with staring out the window.

Kakashi snaps his book shut for the first time since Naruto woke up. "I get it you had a rough childhood and technically Sasuke was the first to acknowledge you strength wise he was one of your early bonds. Trust me I know how it feels to lose bonds from those you call family." Naruto looks at Kakashi finally since a long time acknowledging Kakashi as his sensei.

"I was never cut out to be a sensei I wasn't there for you and Sakura like Sasuke. It took you almost dying and Sasuke leaving to actually acknowledge your potential." Kakashi lightly chuckles the last thing he expected to be doing that day was spilling his deeper thoughts to his own student.

"At least, I was able to help you with the Rasenshuriken I didn't teach Sakura anything but to climb a tree with chakra. She needed me just as much as you two did yet I overlooked her in favor of Sasuke...I'm glad that she was able to learn from Tsunade-sama."

"I can sit here and say that I was a horrible sensei but I'm glad I was able to form bonds with you and Sakura. Team 7 might be a mess now but I have hope that we'll be able to recover from this blow."

What Kakashi didn't know was that what he hoped for will come just not as soon as he wanted.

X

"Sasuke?" Tsunade says blankly more like she was repeating what Sakura said. She just wanted to get Sakura to calm down and get back to the hospital.

"Everywhere I go he's there... Taunting me." Sakura says horrified and shaken up terribly. Tsunade would definitely need a Yamanaka doctor to see how Sakura is holding up mentally. If they judge her mentality right then and there then she would be in the crazy house.

"Shishou what should I do?" Sakura looked up at her with broken and shaken dull eyes. With the amount of brokenness, Sakura voice had in it was enough for Tsunade to look away.

She was angry at herself and blamed herself that it had to come to this. Her student would never be the same again. If only she didn't force Naruto to try to talk to her when he clearly wasn't ready.

"Where's your strength?" Tsunade says sternly hiding her sad expression that she just had a minute ago. Before Shizune could cut in she was quickly silenced by a glare from Tsunade.

"The Sakura I know isn't weak and she damn sure wouldn't be sobbing in front of her Shishou. So what if you have a scar on your face don't let that be a scar on your mentality."

"This scar came from me being weak... if only I was stronger." Tsunade grabs a handful of Sakura's shirt and pulls her up to her feet. "You think you're the only person who's felt weak at one point? Everyone has." Tsunade growled out trying to slap some sense in her student.

"So don't sit here and tell me that bullshit. Sakura Haruno student of the fifth Hokage and will soon surpass me. But you can't because you have yet to master the summoning Jutsu and the Byakugō no In. So don't sit here and tell me you're weak when your training is incomplete!"

"..." Sakura didn't respond for a couple of minutes and Tsunade and Shizune couldn't see her eyes which were covered by her bangs.

The silence was broken by dark chuckling coming from the same pinkette that was just crying a minute ago. "Thank you Shishou but I'm afraid that even with those things you just said that I still won't be caught up to where Naruto and Sasuke are."

"I'm just a simple ordinary Kunoichi trying to compete with clan members." Sakura wraps her hand around Tsunade's wrist. With darkened green orbs she openly glares at her master.

Shizune gasp and Tsunade takes a step back the change in her demeanor was astonishing. "You can no longer teach me anything else so this is the end of this teacher and student relationship." Sakura hand that was on her wrist slowly tightened until Tsunade let go of her shirt.

Tsunade and Shizune openly stared at Sakura. They weren't sure what happened to her in just a matter of minutes but it wasn't good.

"Sakura-"

"You're wrong I am weak and I'm going to work to get stronger with or without your permission."

All that was running through Tsunade head was that everything was all her fault.

A/N: If I had to choose a song to go along with this story then it would probably be World So Cold by 12 Stones. I wrote this chapter while listening to that song and some parts of the song influenced my writing.

Anyway I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas I have the rest of this week before School starts again so I'll try to work on updating the rest of my fanfics.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6: Master and Student (Respect)**

If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them.

-Michael Bassey Johnson

Tsunade blankly stared out of the window of the Hokage office. Her paperwork lay forgotten in a pile to be checked and approved or rejected.

A week already went by since the council meeting and she still has yet to come up with an excuse to let the council allow Naruto to stay in Konoha or even stop imprisoning him. She hasn't heard from Sakura in a while but she does know that Sakura is still recovering in the hospital. Naruto was probably out training and under surveillance with Kakashi and the remaining members of team 7.

Her time was up and she had nothing to protect Naruto from the council. Tsunade stands from her chair and walks closer to the window. Children were out and about playing with each other without a care in the world. Innocent civilians. That thought ran through her head every time she looked out that window.

"Tsunade-sama! A scroll from the Raikage." She sighed and received the scroll from her loyal assistant.

Tsunade unrolls the scroll her sharp honey brown eyes running over every word at least twice. She couldn't believe what she was reading and it would solve her current predicament. "Shizune this is going to shut the council up about Naruto. Call a meeting!"

Shizune scurries away to summon the council members but not before catching a glimpse of a smile and spark in Tsunade's eyes that hasn't been there in a long time. She turns in her chair to look up at the bright sun beaming down upon her village.

The smile from her face was instantly wiped away when a large dust cloud came from the training grounds. She knew exactly what or shall she say who caused it. A certain bedridden patient of hers was up and about aiming for power.

Tsunade opens the window and jumps from building to building heading to the dust cloud. Once she arrived standing in the middle of a large crater was her very own student panting and clutching her still sore ribs. Beside her appeared one of her most trusted Jounin and leader of team 7.

"Sakura you're supposed to be in the hospital." Tsunade walks over to her and bends down to ease her ribs. "You can't just be up and about doing whatever you want."

Sakura stares down at her hands angrily clenching her fist. "It's not enough." The green chakra from Tsunade fades away once she saw fit that Sakura was ok. "I can't sit back and let him get ahead of me. So why are you holding me in that hospital like a prisoner!?" Sakura jerks away from Tsunade's touch looking at her with accusing green eyes. Her eyes were narrowed, rigid, cold, hard. In that moment, Tsunade knew she was already far away. Kakashi makes his presence known as he closes his book.

"I'll train Sakura." With impassive obsidian eyes, he looks down at his student. The scars stuck out like a sore thumb. It was his first time seeing her since the incident busy with Naruto. He felt guilty and his confession to Naruto in the hospital only made the guilt unbearable.

Kakashi's expression lighten up and like a child, he pets her head. "Tell me Sakura do you know your chakra affinity?" Sakura calms down and shakes her head no.

Kakashi pulls out a small square piece of paper from his pouch. He gives it to Sakura and explains what it was she was holding. "In your hand is chakra paper ninjas use this paper to find out what affinity someone has. The paper is made from a special type of tree the paper reacts to the slightest hint of chakra. Fire the paper will catch fire then turn to ash. Wind the paper will split in half. Lightning the paper will wrinkle. Earth the paper will turn to dirt and crumble. Last but not least water the paper becomes damp. Try it." Kakashi does his infamous close eye smile to ease her reluctance. Sakura looks toward Tsunade for her to confirm the new information she learned. She nods confirming the information.

Sakura takes a deep breath and pumps a small amount of chakra into the small piece of paper. The three didn't have to wait long as the paper dampens. Sakura was astonished she thought that maybe she would get earth or even fire since fire seemed more common in Konoha. "Water. Luckily I know quite a bit about the water affinity and so does Yamato. We'll start tomorrow but for now, rest up Sakura." Kakashi disappears only leaving behind a cloud of smoke where he once stood.

"Come on Sakura let's get you back to the hospital." Sakura stands up brushing the hand that Tsunade held out aside.

"How long are you going to play these games?" Tsunade was finally fed up with Sakura's cold shoulder and temper tantrums. She continues walking away from her master without a single word said nor glance back.

"Alright, Sakura you want to fight so bad fight me. Let all of your anger and frustration out on me but I won't hold back." Tsunade gets into a stance prepared to defend herself and fight back. Sakura stops where she stood her body shaking with rage directed at everyone. Tsunade would soon know that the Sakura in front of her was not the same Sakura she taught.

Sakura turns around to face her mentor with an impassive expression. Her, eyes remain cold, like nothing in this world could melt them. Even though she looked calm on the outside her mind was like a whirling ocean filled with bitterness, regret, guilt, and anger. "Fine."

Tsunade didn't want to hurt her much but she has to knock her down a peg or two. The wind blew through both of the ladies' hair covering their vision momentarily. Once their vision was clear Sakura blink once and Tsunade was giving her a barrage of well-aimed punches. If she was even a second late with her dodging she could possibly be out of the fight.

She needed some space to recollect herself and think of something to do. Her eyes looked furiously for an opening she can go for but none was open. Sakura backs off but that was just what Tsunade wanted. With just a stomp of her heel, the ground beneath her was crumbling apart.

The rational side of Sakura knew she was in over her head but the angry side wouldn't admit it. Sakura stumble and just barely caught her feet in time to dodge a fist by an inch.

Sakura swept her legs to try and trip Tsunade but she was just too quick. "I'm ashamed to even call you my student." Sakura yells, this time, throwing her own barrage of chakra infused punches each being dodged effortlessly. "Your mind is so cluttered you're not thinking of the consequences of going head first into a fight."

Sakura in her own fury didn't see the punch aimed for her stomach as a counter from Tsunade. The hit in the gut made her cough up spit and her body go flying through as least 12 trees. Her vision was a blur and she took a moment to assess whether she was ok to still fight. She healed her ribs for a minute which was all the time she was given since her master was falling from the sky above her with a foot ready to end the fight.

She rolls to the side and where her body use to be was another huge crater. Unfortunately, she was caught in the after effect of the attack and sent rolling across the ground like a rag. Sakura coughed and shook her head getting the dirt and dust from her hair. **"Tsk, I'm ashamed to be killed by someone as weak as you."**

"Leave me the hell alone." Sakura snarls. She gets up on shaky legs holding her ribs. Tsunade knew that she was weak there and aimed straight for it hoping to end the fight quick.

Tsunade observed her student from up in a tree it was obvious that Sakura was distracted by something in her head. As bad as she would feel about fighting someone mentally unstable later she was having fun now.

"Let's end this Sakura." Tsunade lands behind her ready to deal the finishing blow. Sakura turns just in time to intercept it. To Tsunade's surprise, Sakura lashes out and catches her fist with her own chakra infused hand.

She had enough time to see the amount emotion Sakura portrayed in her eyes. Sakura cocks her first back and aims for her face. It was as if everything was in slow motion but she was frozen in place. Sorrows and unimaginable pain swam around in her deep green irises. Next thing she knew she was the one being sent flying her blood trailing behind her splattered on the forest floor. "You're holding back! I don't want this fight to drag on to unnecessary lengths." Tsunade gets up and using the blood from her face she goes through hand signs pretty quickly. When she was done with her hand signs she slams her palm on the ground and out comes Katsuyu her summoned slug.

"Katsuyu use you zesshi nensan." Tsunade orders her slug summon. Since Sakura won't use her full strength She'll just force her too.

"Hai Tsunade-sama." Katsuyu spits out brown colored acid melting away the trees in the area.

Sakura was busy dodging for her life even if a drop of acid gets on her skin and possibly bone, will melt away. Sakura didn't think that the fight would turn that serious. She had to think of something to get rid of Katsuyu first before going after her master.

Sakura clenches her head trying to think of a way to counter the slug and acid. She snaps her eyes open when a dangerous idea crosses her mind. Sakura does the hand sign she's seen Naruto do plenty of time. "Kage bunshin no jutsu." Two clones of Sakura appear on each side of Sakura. She wanted one to go straight at the slug and herself and another clone are to go around the side of it using the trees to cover them. Sakura gave the signal to her clone at the same time to attack the slug. On the count of 3, they attacked the slug together with chakra infused punches.

The original Sakura makes another clone throw her to the top where Tsunade was falling since the slug poofed away. Sakura activated her chakra scalpel using them as a blade. Tsunade saw out of the corner of her eyes pink fast approaching with green glowing hands. Tsunade couldn't dodge in the air but she could shift her body so that Sakura's chakra scalpel doesn't do anything life threatening.

Sakura holds her arm out in front of her aiming for her stomach. Her chakra scalpel didn't exactly go where it was supposed to instead it cut through her shoulder. For a minute she thought she had the upper hand but that changed when a sharp pain shot through her body. Evidently Tsunade grabs ahold of her arm and using her enhanced strength break her arm. A cry out of pain escape pass her lips that she was sure everyone in Konoha could hear it. Tsunade not only did that but she turned them around in the air so Sakura could take in the impact of the fall.

Tsunade pants and begin to heal her torn and bloody shoulder. A whimper came from behind her and that's when it hit her that she did all of that damage to her own student. They fought as if they were enemies Tsunade even flipped her kill switch. Tsunade slowly turns around to see her student standing up looking as if just a small push will knock her down. Her sobs were stifled at first as she attempted to hide her pain, then overcome by a spasm she broke down entirely. Her arm was angled weirdly indicating that it was broken and she was hunched over a bit and breathing heavily. She saw how hard Sakura was trying to get enough air most likely her ribs punctured her lungs.

"Sakura stop." Tsunade pleads with her student who was like a daughter to her. "I acknowledge your strength." Sakura slowly makes her way over to Tsunade one step at a time even though it was obvious that the pain was winning. The beads of water started falling down one after another, without a sign of stopping.

"I-I h-ha-have t-to w-wi-win." It was amazing that she could still even speak and her determination was truly astounding.

"I-you win Sakura I give up." Sakura looked as if she was going to say something but instead her eyes roll to the back of her head and she faints. Tsunade quickly catches the pinkette being careful not to do any more damage to her student. "You're a stubborn pink haired girl but you have my respect Sakura you're ready now. Rest easy."

X

I hope I'm making it seem like Sakura is losing her shit. Instead of being sad Sakura decides to be angry instead. Maybe one day I'll have a chapter that doesn't have Sakura crying.

I wasn't planning on making this chapter short but it felt right to end the chapter off right there with Sakura earning respect from her Shishou. For the first time since writing fight scenes, I actually enjoyed writing it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 7: The Nightmare**

"You learned to run from what you feel, and that's why you have nightmares. To deny is to invite madness. To accept is to control."

-Megan Chance

This chapter with the nightmare was inspired by the song _eyes on fire_.

Kakashi walked through the halls of the hospital reading his usual perverted book without a care in the world. The hospital seemed like his female student new residents. He heard about what happened between the student and master. How Sakura held her own against the Hokage and even when it was clear she lost she still stood up to win until the Hokage gave up. The story was spreading like wildfire and getting twisted and altered.

It also seemed that Tsunade had to push the council meeting back to the next day to heal Sakura up. Tsunade just recently informed him of the problem with Naruto and the council. She's going to announce to the council her decision on what to do with Naruto.

"Hokage-sama." Kakashi greets walking into Sakura's hospital room where she lay awake but her breathing seemed a bit labored.

"Kakashi. Looks like Sakura won't be able to make it to training tomorrow." Kakashi chuckles and nods in agreement. He looked over to his student who looked to be pouting about having her training pushed back. It was good to see them somewhat back on good terms. It was quite a sight the way they left the training grounds. It looked like something out of a horror film with the charred trees and burnt grass. The only difference being the huge craters left and right there.

"Sakura how are you?" She shrugs looking at the setting sun from her window.

"She'll be fine we healed the lungs but as you can tell her labored breathing is still there. Since she's ok to walk maybe tomorrow I'll allow her to do small jobs around the hospital tomorrow." Kakashi nods he wouldn't admit it out loud but he looked forward to actually teaching her.

"Who's watching over him?"

Kakashi sighs in sits down on the only chair in the room. "Yamato. He has a lot of anger in him."

Sakura heart rate increases showing on the monitor. "Don't talk about him in my presence. He's the reason why I have 3 big ass scars on my face.

"Sakura I'm sure he didn't mean to d-"

"Bullshit you really think that a part of him didn't purposely give into the Kyuubi. Deep down he wanted to give me these scars hell he probably gets off to it." Tsunade shoots her a warning glare when her heart rate was going up to high.

"That's why I plan on sending Naruto away to this island where he can learn to control his tailed beast. It's not impossible since the eight tailed Jinchuuriki did it himself." Sakura rolls her eyes at their naivety it made her sick.

"So he can finish the other side of my face," She states. Sakura turns on her side so her back was facing them. They thought she was done speaking but proved them wrong. "I'm surprised the council hasn't hung him yet. He's a ticking time bomb waiting to explode."

"Like you?" Kakashi replied back causing silence to take over the room. Tsunade sighed. She wasn't in the mood to speak about Naruto or the council.

"Get out." Kakashi and Tsunade exchange worried glances but nonetheless leaves.

The two walk a far distance from the room Kakashi could sense something was on her mind or was it anger. "What the hell made you say that?" Yep, it was definitely anger.

"She needed to hear it from someone and sheltering her from the truth won't help anyone. She became an adult the day she decided to put on that headband I think it's time to start treating her as one. Pitying her isn't working so a bit of tough love probably would." Tsunade looked into Kakashi one free eye and could see there was a seriousness about him that unnerved her. Shizune comes along interrupting the stare down.

"Tsunade-sama I heard what happened are you well?" Tsunade scoffs and looks at Shizune with confidence.

"Trust me this is nothing." Tsunade bathes in the look of respect she was receiving from people nearby. It was the job of the Hokage to be as strong as one's village.

"Didn't you give up." He doesn't ask he more or less states. Unfortunately, he didn't see the fist that went right at his face sending him through a couple walls until he was outside on the ground in a daze.

"Shizune get someone to fix those walls and pick up Kakashi's unconscious body from the ground. I'll be in my office if you need me." With unforeseen winds her grass-green haori with the kanji for gamble on the back blows in the wind. Everyone sweat drops and when an angry glare was directed towards them they all ran to do whatever they did.

"Tsunade-sama!" Said person turns to find a disheveled looking blonde running up to her. It was Ino coming back from her mission to - if she remembered correctly Tea country.

"Ino how was the mission?" Ino bows a proper greeting before addressing her Hokage.

"A success Tsunade-sama." She smiles down at the younger blonde proud that an important high C low B rank mission was a success. She wouldn't have sent team 10 if she thought otherwise.

"I-I Sakura ok I heard about what happened between you two." She knew this was coming as soon as she saw Ino running up to her. Ino was indeed a worried friend but that wouldn't work on Sakura the way she is now.

"She's fine just sleeping." That was a lie but she was afraid that Sakura was going to say something she might regret later to her concerned friend. Ino breathed deeply perhaps relieved.

"C-can I go in to see her." Tsunade stares for a while coming to a decision as pleading eyes glared up at her.

"No the way she is now would do more harm than good." A look of displeasure crossed her face but she didn't let it stay longer than needed.

"Right thank you Tsunade-sama." Ino once again bows with a not so convincing smile on her face. She quickly leaves making her feel quite skeptical.

Naruto trained all day under the close supervision of his teammates. No one said anything to him but they did occasionally spar with the blonde but they always ended it before it got serious.

Naruto could tell all eyes were on him as he begrudgingly walked through the streets of Konoha. Their whispering only made him angrier whether they, believe it or not, is up to them. Even though they continued to whisper about him he could still sense their fear. He could tell from the way every time he came through the village a path seemed to be cleared just for him even during busy times.

Finally, he reached his empty and dead apartment where the only thing he could do was think. He truly did regret hurting Sakura even if a major part of himself hated her a small piece still have feelings for her. He could still remember how he felt when he had his grip around her neck as she told him she loved him. That part of him affected him and was very lenient with the way he handled Sakura.

Naruto groans angrily as his thoughts always went straight to her lie. In fact, his thoughts always went to her in general. She tore his life apart but also helped it with her presence.

Every single good thought he had about her a million bad ones came up. Every time he sat in his apartment banging his head against the wall just to get Kyuubi's voice out of his head he swore he was being driven crazy. The constant snicker that made him hate himself and his life.

Naruto stumbles to the bathroom and removes every article of clothing on him. He sloppily turns on his shower to scalding hot. As the water heated up he only stared at his reflection. It was as if he aged a couple of years that made him look old and tired. His mind was shattered in pieces and his life was a depressing story filled with hate. The fog slowly crept up his mirror covering the face he once thought he knew.

"Damn, I'm a mess." Naruto tests the water and felt it was a bit too hot and turned it down some. Every day since that awful day was the same. He would wake up go train until late come back to his grimy apartment shower and attempt to sleep. Naruto gets into the shower and lets the water drench his unmoving body. The water was able to make his mind go numb and his body also. It was a soothing feeling. For a minute, he could close his eyes and have a peaceful sleep. It would all end too soon when his water turned freezing cold and woke him up back to reality. Sighing Naruto reaches for a towel to dry off with.

It was going to be another sleepless night. He puts on a pair of pants and shuts the water off. He walks out of the bathroom and throws himself onto the bed. It was too hot in his apartment to actually settle into the bed.

He stares outside of the window up at the moon and starry night sky. Slowly his eyes shut despite him wanting to stay awake. Falling into dreamland next thing he knew he was awakened in a dark dreary bathroom with blood covering the walls.

The second thing he notices was the boiling water at his feet steadily rising. The weird thing was that although the water was rising and boiling it wasn't burning him. The surroundings and dream were all new to him. He constantly dreamed mostly about Sasuke's death and Kyuubi being released nothing like this.

He looked around him and noticed he was sitting on a chair in the middle of the empty bathroom. He silently panicked as darkness spread closer and closer to him. Evil demonic laughter rang loudly all around him that he was unable to pinpoint which direction it came from. In front of him, he could see two dim red lights each time he blinks five more popped up. The redness got closer and brighter and gave him a sense of fear.

When he finally tried to get out of the chair he was unable to do so all he could do was cry out for help. "Help!" From the corner of his scared ceruleans, he saw a pale light also coming closer. He just hoped that the light was a good thing but as it got closer he saw that the light became a naked female.

Unfortunately, that wasn't all. The naked woman was the only woman he ever despised. He felt like he was stuck between asking the woman he hated for help of facing his demons literally.

"S-Sakura." As she got closer he realized how beautiful she looked with her floor-length pink hair. Instead of smelling blood he caught a whiff of a pleasant smell he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it made him feel content and calm.

He could feel her pulling him towards her with each step she took towards him. She made him completely forget about the demons in front of him.

Her familiar green eyes her sweet smile that he remembered falling for a while ago. Finally, she was close enough to touch and as he reached up to touch her she unexpectedly takes hold of his hands. He was forced to take his eyes off of her when he felt something sticky and slippery on his hands.

"Wha-why is there blood in my hands." He couldn't stand it how she just continued to smile at him as if everything was ok. She got behind him and touched all over his arms bringing them behind him. He couldn't even fight back as she tied his hands back still while wearing that same smile. Her hands were all over him as he sat there stiffly unable to move. It was as if everywhere she touched was being lit on fire and he couldn't stop her. As if in slow motion her hands came up to cover his own eyes and the last thing he saw was the demons lunging at him. "What do you want now?" Sakura whispers quietly in his ear.

He could hear growling and deep breathing on his face that couldn't possibly be Sakura's "You're nothing but a demon-" he could feel the wind against his back as if he was falling but that couldn't be possible right?

The hands clouding his vision disappear and was replaced with Sakura's face. He looked around panicky as they fell from wherever. He noted that she was no longer smiling but now had a neutral expression. The closer he looked the more he noticed three scars on her face was bleeding. It was when Kyuubi took over his body and made him hurt her.

"Demon like you should be burning in hell." Her hand goes through his torso and the green eyes he loved were no more now they were black like an abyss. He couldn't understand the woman, no, the thing in front of him it was grinning creepily down at him but also crying actual tears.

Naruto couldn't speak since its own hand was through his torso and as he tried to blink away the blurry sight of her face. He knew that he was slowly dying by the hands of a look-alike of the girl he once thought he knew. With each ounce of blood, he loses his consciousness was slowly fading and he was slowly dying.

At some point, he realized he lose his fight and will to live. Death would ease the ache he was feeling. The grinning creature slowly morphs into himself the only difference...

Was the flaming blood-red eyes.

"Naruto!" Naruto suddenly wakes up gasping for air while feeling for his wound at the same time. It meant something but what?

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his name once again. "Naruto are you ok?" In front of him was Yamato he also noticed that although his dreams were being haunting he slept through the whole night without waking.

"Yeah I'm fine." Sweat was all over his naked torso and his blonde locks stuck to his face. The nightmare kept flashing in his mind that he wasn't able to think clearly. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw that you were tossing and turning and screaming a... name." By a name Yamato meant HER name. Sakura Haruno.

Naruto got up from his bed and went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. He lowered his head and let the water drip from his face. He slowly looked up when he could hear familiar giggling. In his mirror was long haired Sakura from his dream laughing at him with a crooked smile and maddening black eyes.

The blonde wiped his eyes quickly to rid them of the sight before him. Instead of Sakura in the mirror, it was himself but the only difference was the red eyes and toothy grin that showed off his fang.

"Hey, Naruto." Tenzo walked into the sight of the Kyuubi container staring at his reflection blankly. Tenzo walked slowly towards him cautiously and hesitatingly reaches out to touch his shoulder. One light touch snaps Naruto out of his stupor and left him gasping for air.

"What happened to you Naruto?" Naruto shook his head just as confused as Tenzo.

"I'm losing my mind."

"Psst Sakura are you awake?" That was the sound she woke up to coming from her window. With blurry eyes, she looks up and saw a dark figure walking closer to her. Her reflexes kick in and she immediately grabs the kunai from under the bed.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Get that kunai out of my face forehead." Sakura vision clear she knew even without seeing clearly that the only person who called her forehead was Ino. She keeps the kunai pointed at her face a minute longer before putting it back in her hiding spot.

"Do you treat all of your visitors like that?" Ino sits down on the only chair in the room as Sakura lays back down on her bed.

"What do you want?" Ino sighs she missed her best friend the one laying in front of her was the opposite of usual Sakura. Sulking didn't fit the usually vibrant kunoichi.

"I heard what happened between you and Tsunade she wouldn't even let me in here can you believe that?" Sakura rolled her eyes it was believable to everyone but Ino.

"I came to uh well make plans. Once you're out of this hospital OR earlier me, you, Hinata, and Tenten-"

"I'll be busy training so no thanks." Ino looked confusedly.

"Training for what?" Sakura stops staring up at the ceiling to glare angrily at her blonde friend.

"A war for one Akatsuki is still out there and I'll personally end them especially if they have Sasuke-kun body...and to surpass Naruto." She clenches her fist tightly as Ino saw a determined spark she hasn't seen in a long time. It was the first time that Sakura has voiced the true reasons she needed to get stronger.

"The weak link."

"What?" Ino asks thinking she misheard her pink haired friend.

"No more will I be the weak link I swear on my life." Ino smiles unsure whether getting the power will kill her first before the Akatsuki does.

Ino reaches slowly to touch the 3 scars on her cheek. She was giving Sakura enough time to react and pull away. Lightly she touches the 3 lines with a sad smile adjoining her face. "One day when I was a kid I would often go over to Shika's place and hang out with him and Choji. I had finally gathered the courage to ask Shika's dad how he got those scars on his face," Ino chuckles lightly thinking about that day like it just happened yesterday. "He wouldn't tell me even if I continually asked or even cried. But he did give me words of wisdom that I would never forget about scars. He got down towards my level put his hand on my head and with a smile-"

Ino's own lips lifted upward. Her dimple crinkle only when she grinned broadly. Her teeth were perfectly aligned. The brightness of her smile could lighten any dark room. "He said to me _never be ashamed of a scar it simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you_."

"What I'm trying to say is that you should never be ashamed of your scars we all have them although they're not visible but nonetheless it's there. Wear that scar loud and proud." Ino gives a stunned Sakura a tight hug and says a quick goodbye. She moved over towards the window but before leaving she almost forgot to tell Sakura one more thing.

"If you ever change your mind about the girl's night out just tell me-" Ino observe her closely, "you look like you could really use a break." With that Ino leaves Sakura alone in the quiet and dark hospital room.

Sakura grabs the kunai from under her bed and looks at her reflection in it. The first step to her recovery would be to get over her fears. She cuts her palm allowing it bleed freely. She stares at the blood as flashes of that day passed through her vision.

Her breathing begins to accelerate as she hyperventilates as more images of his death flashed before her. She didn't have time to react to Tsunade's blood being on her hands earlier since she was far too exhausted. She could faintly hear her heart monitor begin to beep rapidly alerting the late night doctors and nurses.

In came about 3 nurses and one doctor she could faintly hear them call her name but she never responded. One of the nurses injects a sedative into her making her slowly calm down and fall asleep.

Tsunade looked in from the doorway a sad expression on her face. Get well soon Sakura.

A/N: Geez both of them are falling apart without the other to keep them on the ground. Luckily Sakura has Ino and Tsunade there to help her but it can be debated whether it's helping or not.

I made Sakura fear blood like Tsunade did kind of the same reason why. I don't do anything without an explanation well in this story that is.

Continue to review it inspires me to keep up the work.

**Dream explanation**

**~to dream that water is boiling suggests that you are expressing some emotional turmoil. Feelings from your subconscious are surfacing and ready to be acknowledged. You need to let out some steam. **

**~To dream that water is rising up suggests that you are becoming overwhelmed by your emotions.**

**~To dream that you are sitting indicates your indecision. You do not know what you want to do about something. It also suggests that you are idling and wasting your life away. if you are accepting of someone else's nudity, then it implies that you can see right through them and their intentions.**

**~To dream that someone is in tears indicate that you need to rethink your actions and how your behavior may be affecting those around you.**

**If in the dream, we are with OUR HANDS TIED, means that someone is trying to prevent us to do something. And if you dream that someone we know ties our hands, that means the person tries to do something to prevent.**

**~To dream that you are covering something indicates a part of yourself that you are trying to hide or are afraid of revealing.**

**~To see blood on your hands signifies that you are experiencing some sort of guilt. **

**~To notice a dark, scary, or small room connotes feelings of being penned up, trapped, or repressed.**

**~If you dream of blood on the walls, then it is a warning of sorts. There is a situation that you need to confront. You cannot avoid it any longer. More specifically, if blood is on the bathroom walls, then it indicates that the situation that you need to confront is an extremely emotional one.**

**~To dream that you are bleeding or losing blood signifies that you are suffering from exhaustion or that you are feeling emotionally drained. It may also denote bitter confrontations between you and your friends.**

**~To hear evil, demonic laughing in your dream represents feelings of humiliation and/or helplessness. You feel that someone is working against you.**

**~To dream that darkness comes upon you signifies failure in some work that you are attempting. Darkness is synonymous with ignorance, the subconscious, evil, death, and fear of the unknown. If the sun breaks through the darkness, then you will overcome your failures**

**~To see demons in your dream indicates that you may be experiencing or inflicting fear, emotional distress or physical abuse in your waking life.**

**~a smile indicates that you are in search of something or someone that will make you happy.**

**~To smell something in your dream indicates your past experiences and feelings you associate with that particular smell. Your dream is trying to convey a feeling with a familiar smell or scent. Alternatively, the scent may be part of your real environment which you have incorporated into your dream.**

**~To dream that someone is whispering in your ear suggests that you need to pay closer attention to something or listen to someone more carefully.**

**~Dreams of falling often represent a loss of control in some area of your life.**

**~To see your reflection in your dream represents your true self.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 8: Her Decision**

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

-Maimonides

For once silence accompanied the 9 friends as they sat around some wood for some unfinished construction in the village. Ino had just told them everything that has been happening since Sasuke's funeral.

"So Naruto left 3 scars on Sakura's face using the Kyuubi's chakra, which they were unable to heal?" Kiba just wanted to make sure he got it even though it was hard not to get.

"Yeah, it's one big mess." Ino sits back on the stacked wood to just breathe for a minute.

"And then Sakura and Tsunade went at it the winner being Sakura only because Tsunade gave up." Ino nods her affirmative to the weapon master of their group.

"Troublesome," was Shikamaru's usual reply to a problem and this time everyone agreed with him.

"I should visit Sakura-san and give her a thousand roses," Lee speaks up enthusiastically.

"Good luck with that Tsunade wouldn't even let me in to see her I had to sneak in through her window." Ino knew she was killing the mood but someone had to tell them. Both Sakura and Naruto are their friends and they needed them.

"I guess that must be what the council meeting is about today."

"Yeah, my old man wouldn't tell me anything about it." Ino sighs her father also told her that they were having a council meeting but not what it was about.

"What are we going to do?" Choji says in between each chip. No one had a clue on what to do next not even Shikamaru.

Hinata stands up with newfound hope surprising the solemn group. "I-I'm going to visit N-Naruto-kun."

"No." Neji also stands up his voice leaving no room for arguing.

"B-but Nii-san-"

"Naruto almost killed Sakura he's clearly a dangerous person."

"He's not like that!" Hinata snaps shocking quite a few people.

"Like you would know." A heavy silence hung over the group of friends as they watched the stare down between the two cousins. Hinata breaks the stare down and walks away. To where? They didn't know.

Neji watches her leave until he couldn't see her anymore. He sat down half regretting snapping at her. She just wanted to check up on him and he shot her down instantly.

"Shouldn't you make sure she's not going to visit Naruto?" Kiba worriedly asks still looking in the direction his teammate went.

"She won't."

"Yeah but how do you know? Everyone's just sitting around relaxing not doing a damn thing. At least, she's trying to comfort one of her friends." Ino had enough of the bickering, they wouldn't have even known if she didn't tell them.

"And what are you doing exactly Kiba? What do you suggest we do bring Sasuke back alive and kiss and make up?" Kiba and Ino entered in their own glaring contest. Tensions were high and if someone didn't stop them soon fights were going to break out.

"Alright alright enough. Arguing isn't doing anything so we should try finding out what the meeting is about. Our best bet would probably be asking Sakura she's bound to know what it is about since it's probably involving her and Naruto." Shikamaru was making up the plan ever since Ino told them about what happened.

"Yosh Shikamaru always comes up with the best plans!" Lee fist pumps partially because they were going to visit Sakura.

"All of us shouldn't go though we don't want to crowd Sakura," Tenten speaks up.

"Right Tenten I'll go." Ino determinately looked towards the direction the hospital building was.

"I guess I have no choice but to go also." Shikamaru yawns sitting up for the first time since the group arrived. Before she could retort Neji also adds his input. Lee was unfortunately shot down and sulked as the trio left to go to the hospital.

Her honey brown eyes were cold and that coldness was being directed at them specifically Ino. "I-I'n sorry but I had to see my best friend."

Tsunade dryly chuckles when there was nothing funny. "Yesterday Sakura began hyperventilating, we found her with a kunai and a slit hand any ideas as to why she would do that?" It wasn't a question she was demanding an answer.

"I didn't say anything like that I swear I just told her a story and to embrace her scars." Tsunade was closely watching the blonde making her feel uncomfortable in her own body. It was like she was being interrogated for a crime she didn't do.

"Hmm what are you three doing here?" Ino hoped that the change of topic meant that she believed her.

"We came to ask Sakura a question, but since you're here you can answer it for us." The Fifth Hokage looks at the three individually observing them. She nods her affirmative, giving them the OK to ask.

"What's the council meeting about?" Neji asks getting impatient with all the useless interrogation.

"And why should I tell you brats?"

"Naruto is our friend and if we can prevent him from being killed or imprisoned, then we will." The fifth looked slightly impressed she was glad that Naruto have friends that would do anything for him. If only he could rely on them instead of the Uchiha's past image.

"It already seems that you three already know what the meeting is about." Ino nervously chuckles glaring daggers at the Nara beside her for telling her what they suspected.

"We just want confirmation." Shikamaru lazily shrugs seeing no harm in anything he just said.

"Very well the council wants me to come up with something to do with Naruto or they will. I can only imagine what it is they want to do with Naruto." Tsunade gets up the meeting would start any minute and if she wanted to get on their good side she'd get there early.

"W-wait where's Sakura?" Tsunade contemplated on whether telling Ino was a good thing or bad. The last thing Sakura needed was more distractions. Then again, what if Sakura actually needed a friend to lean on.

"She's on the first floor helping out with minor injuries." Ino bows and thank her before running off to find her friend.

"Did you come up with something to save Naruto?" Neji ask this time. Tsunade's only response was a small smirk and a nod. She headed off to the dreadful meeting and she planned to succeed.

Arriving early to the council room, she was surprised to find Shikaku and Inoichi already there chatting in whispers. "Gentlemen." They nod their greeting to their Hokage no longer having their hush conversation. "Let's hope this meeting won't take too long." Shikaku agreed he wanted to hopefully be able to get a nap in.

"How's your shoulder Hokage-sama?" In response, Tsunade stretches out her arm showing it was as good as new.

"As you can see perfectly healed." Inoichi grins glad to see their leader in perfect shape. "And Sakura?" The lighthearted conversation was rudely interrupted by the head of the Hyuga clan.

"How do you think she is if she's still in the hospital?" Tsunade glowered at the snobbish Hyuga.

"I would think that the Hyuga clan would learn some manners at an early age." Hiashi grunts and takes his seat where the Hyuga symbol was. Slowly person after person arrived until everyone was seated and ready.

"Have you figured out what to do with the Kyuubi container Tsunade-hime?" Koharu asks the Hokage.

Tsunade stands up from her chair, pulling out a scroll that she received yesterday. "I have." She looks smugly at the two elders on both sides of her. "Here in this scroll is what we're going to do with Naruto. To save time I'll summarize, you all can have a look as I speak." She passes the scroll to her right which was Homura. He unrolled the scroll and read the contents the name that stuck out to him was the Raikage's name.

"In the scroll is a way that allows Naruto to control the Kyuubi. As you all may know the Akatsuki has already taken every tailed beast except for the Kyuubi, of course, and the Hachibi. The Hachibi belongs to Kumogakure the Raikage himself wrote this scroll and sent it to us. In the scroll it's said that the Jinchuuriki of the Hachibi has formed a bond with his tailed beast. The Jinchuuriki is able to use its power at any time and control it." Tsunade looks around the room all eyes were on her as she explained everything to them. It was important that she got their approval to send Naruto to the island where he can control the Kyuubi.

"The Raikage suggest we send both the Jinchuuriki to Genbu to protect them from the Akatsuki and so Naruto could control the Kyuubi's power." She sits back down concluding her statement to the group of people. Tsunade waited patiently as the silence passed by.

"What exactly is this Genbu?" Tsunade expected that question.

"A gigantic and ancient turtle a fortress basically." In all honesty, she didn't know much about the Island she remembered once reading about it when she younger but it was said to be a myth.

"And how do we know that this isn't a trap?" Tsunade rolls her eyes, they were going to war with the Akatsuki, they had no time for foolish games and "ifs" and "ands".

"We're a Shinobi Alliance we have to put our trust in our allies." She was thankful that Gaara informed her on everything that happened at the Kage summit. Or else she would be lost on the whole alliance thing since Danzo and his men were dead.

"And if Naruto can't form a "bond" with the Kyuubi?" Shikaku had a point what if Naruto failed?

"All we can do is have faith in Naruto."

X

The meeting was concluded after questions were thrown at her like her gambling debts. She sighed out of relief that the meeting was finally over and it actually went in her favor.

They were skeptical and not everyone agreed with it in the end, but her idea got the most votes.

"Hokage-sama!" A nurse ran up to her snapping her out of her musing. The woman looked frazzled and she waited to find out. "A group of Genin came in seriously injured, we managed to stable one, but the other two are in critical condition." As she was about to quickly run off to save the lives of those Genin she was once again stopped. "T-there's something else since we're low on staff to heal, we asked Sakura-san for her assistance..." She had a bad feeling where the story was going.

"Despite her telling us no we still dragged her into the room. S-she started shaking and breathing rapidly as she stared at the blood covered patient and doctors who were operating. Then she started screaming and broke down on her knees crying while repeating the word blood." Tsunade's eyes slowly widen as she knew exactly what was wrong with Sakura it would also explain what happened last night also.

"She's afraid of blood..." Tsunade knew exactly what it meant to be afraid of blood. The sight of it still ached to this day, but she managed to swallow it down thanks to a certain blonde. Shaking her head, she would have to deal with Sakura later she had two critical condition patients.

"Who are the Genin that came in?" The nurse looked down sadly causing Tsunade to feel impatient.

"Team Ebisu Hokage-sama." Tsunade honey brown eyes widen for the second time that day. She rushed off to the hospital, leaving the stunned nurse behind. She would never forgive herself if she didn't save the grandson of her former Sensei and his teammate.

"I'm not going to let them die on my watch." She burst into the hospital startling visitors and the front desk woman. She ran quickly to where they treated critically injured patients. She puts on her scrubs in record time and instantly went to work. "Status report."

"Multiple gashes and poison in his system. We're working on the poison right now." Tsunade nods using her healing chakra to close some of the gashes. He was losing too much blood too fast. "Blood pill." A nurse puts it in his mouth and makes sure he swallows it with her doing all work. They located the point of entry which wasn't through a cut but through inhaling. The poison was in his blood stream and going quickly to his heart ending his life.

"Where's my student?!"

"We don't know Hokage-sama. Is there something wrong?" She thought for a minute that the nurse told her that Sakura had a breakdown in the ICU. Was this the wrong room or was it Konohamaru's teammate room.

"Keep healing those wounds nurses get a large bowl where I can put the extracted poison in and another bowl with water." The nurses nod and quickly looks for just that. Tsunade walks out the door to find her student. It was an easy process since she was sitting on the floor staring off into space. "What the hell happened to you?" She tried to keep her voice low, but her anger towards her apprentice was too much.

"You break down like that in my hospital again, I'll make sure you never step foot in here." Her body trembled from possibly fear she wasn't sure.

"I-I'm afraid Shishou my hands aren't meant to heal anymore. The blood scares me." Tsunade angered face softens a bit, she felt exactly how Sakura was feeling right then.

"Trust me I know how you feel, but I had to overcome that fear so I could help and heal others. I need your help Sakura if we close the wound can I guarantee that you will remove the poison. Then another time we'll take on your fear of blood head on." Tsunade smiled and took both of Sakura's hands which were clenching her hair. Slowly Tsunade help the pinkette up to her feet.

"I was weak and ran from my fears for years you're stronger than me and I believe you can overcome this thing." Sakura looked down seemingly deep in thought.

"Alright, I'll extract the poison." Tsunade smiles not even for a second did she doubt her student. She was of course taught by herself.

"Wait here we may not have a lot of time to take the poison out before it reaches his heart, but we can't give up." Tsunade walks back into the room where almost every wound on Konohamaru's body was closed. She helped them close his wound and ordered the nurses clean off the blood.

Unfortunately things were getting worse as Konohamaru's pulse was going below 60. The poison was going faster than she anticipated and needed Sakura to do the technique right now. "One of you get Sakura!" She yelled as she tried her best to hold off the poison as best she could with her chakra.

Sakura was led in and the first sight she saw was the blood the nurses were cleaning up. "Sakura! This is no time to be panicking, get over here and extract that poison or Konohamaru's death will be on your hands and mine for believing in you." Sakura visibly shook as she walked closer to the kid she grew to know more about. She don't want an innocent person's death on her hands and she'd make sure of it.

Sakura uses her chakra to pick up the water. "Hold him down." Everyone does, except for Tsunade who was making sure the poor boy don't die from the poison. "I won't fail you... Shishou."

X

It was a painful procedure for everyone in that room who watched as the boy yelled out in pain while getting the poison extracted. Udon the other critically injured patient was also going to be ok. The three members of team Ebisu were unconscious and Ebisu himself was missing. From what they gathered from the guards on duty Moegi and Udon was carrying an injured Konohamaru. Once the trio got through the gates they collapsed.

Sakura was in the break room drinking some water while wiping sweat from her face. The procedure was harder on her than usual since she had Sasuke's spirit breathing down her neck trying to make her lose focus. It was like he wanted her to fail to save his life.

"Hey. I heard that you saved Konohamaru's life from that poison." Sakura whips her head around to find Ino standing there. They were both dragged to the ICU to heal Udon. She felt a bit embarrassed since she practically broke down in front of her friend and fellow doctors.

"You did well, although I wish you would have told me you're scared of blood." Sakura didn't respond just continued to drink her water. "At least, people are respecting you well more than usual. They're saying how glad they are that you saved the last Sarutobi." If they knew about how scared she was then they wouldn't be cheering for her.

"Ino...I'm thinking about leaving." Sakura couldn't look her friend in the eyes she didn't want to be persuaded otherwise. "I want to request that Kakashi-sensei and I take a training trip far from here."

"Wha-why would you want that?!" Ino snapped, she felt that she was finally getting through to her friend just to find out she wanted to leave.

"I just don't feel like I belong here anymore if I stay he'll cause me to lose myself even more. I know you see it Ino how much I'm changing and it's not willingly." Ino was a bit selfish she would admit but what Sakura wanted was preposterous. It was like she said a war was brewing on the horizon and she wanted to take one of their best ninjas and her medical knowledge with her. THAT was selfish.

"Y-you can't just leave Sakura." She doubted that the Hokage would even approve of something like that then again...

"You're my best friend who would I have around to talk about girl stuff and pick with. You can't just leave does our bond mean anything to you?!" Sakura stood and walked towards the door. For some reason, she felt like she was Sasuke and Ino was her those years ago. Ino was desperately begging her not to go and she was coldly shrugging her off.

"Bonds are what got me in this position Ino. I'm sorry, but I got to do this." With that, she left on her way to find Tsunade and hopefully leave, she hadn't even told Kakashi, but she'd doubt he would reject the idea. She could sense that he felt bad for neglecting her when she was just a genin.

Ino meant well, but she had to breathe and the village wasn't making that easier. She was lost in thought and felt a sharp pain where her ribs were and snapped out of it. She wasn't healed fully but if she was going to convince Tsunade to let her go then she would have to look healed.

She sighed and looked up at the Hokage tower with a solemn expression. She hoped Tsunade would understand, but if she wasn't going to let her leave, then she'll become a nukenin and hope one day she'll understand. Shaking her head, she didn't even realize that she was already in front of the door. Slowly lifting her fist she raps on the door. She hears an audible "come in" and enters the office.

Tsunade face lightens up at the sight of her student. Tsunade couldn't be any happier at that moment they managed to save the life of genins she convinced Sakura to "woman up" and she got her way in the meeting. She would say her luck was getting better.

"Sakura you're suppose to be in the hospital, I'm sure your ribs aren't a hundred percent yet." Sakura saw how happy she looked and hadn't seen that look in a long time. She inwardly cringes at the thought of being the one to break her good mood. Nonetheless she couldn't stop now she had to spill it.

"I-I have a request."

X

**A/N: I have so much to say about this chapter but I can't. First I wasn't feeling this chapter at all it just felt indescriptive. Second a little fun fact about writing this. I was going to make Naruto say thank you to Sakura for saving Konohamaru's life. But I scrapped that idea when I remembered Sakura hates/love Naruto and Naruto uh his feeling are complicated.**

**Third there were a couple of parallels to some characters in this like the Tsunade and Sakura then the Sasuke and Sakura like Sakura willing to become a nukenin just for power like Sasuke. As I pointed out in the story, Sakura wanting to leave and Ino tries to change her mind.**

**Fourth also I thought about combining pink Haired Ex Anbu with this story just change up a lot I'm not really working on it anymore with all the errors in it.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 9: An Approaching Storm**

Peace of mind is experienced when the stormy waves of the mind quell down.

-Unknown

"I-I have a request." She took a deep breath as she willed the correct words to come out her mouth.

"I want to leave the village." She couldn't look Tsunade in her eyes, afraid that just the look of hurt would break her spirit. "It's more of a training trip and maybe have Kakashi accompany me."

She waited a good minute for an answer or something but it never came. Concerned she finally look up Tsunade had her eyes closed and arms crossed she looked deep in thought. "Why? Why do you want to leave the village?"

"To get stronger." Tsunade thought she heard those words before, but couldn't think of where. Sighing she opens a drawer and pulls out a scroll and gently sets it on the desk. "I'll let you go, but you have to do two things for me." She was at first shock thinking she would have to do a bit more convincing. Sakura finds herself nodding in agreement.

"First I want you to visit Inoichi tomorrow and we'll see if you're mentally stable enough to leave the village. And if you are then I'll tell you the second thing." Sakura pause in her breathing, she wasn't quite sure if she was even mentally stable. The last thing she wanted was to be not stable enough to leave.

Sakura silently agrees with the terms even if she didn't like them. "Now get back to the hospital even I can tell you're still feeling pain in your ribs even if you do try to cover it up." Sakura sighs she still couldn't get anything by her master. Turning away from the older woman she says one last goodbye before heading back to the hospital.

as she left with a feeling of hope inside her and guilt. Hope that Sakura wasn't mentally stable to leave and guilty for wishing such a thing. It was something that Sakura believed would help her get back on track with her life. Yet here she was hoping Sakura would just stay and recover in the village.

She was looking for peace outside of her home and that was dangerous she learned that herself. Tsunade eyes shift to the scroll she pulled out earlier. In the scroll contained a larger scroll sealed inside. The larger scroll was the slug contract she hoped that Sakura would be able to achieve slug sage mood something she couldn't do. Then again, she had her doubts about Sakura being able to.

It was amazing how one request could dampen her whole mood completely. She summons an ANBU to find Kakashi and bring him here she needed to speak to him. She didn't have to wait long since a few minutes later Kakashi was in front of her. "Would you like to leave the village to train Sakura?" The book Kakashi was reading snap shut as he gave her a skeptical look.

"Would it be wise to just leave with the Akatsuki still out there and a war brewing on the horizon?" Tsunade of course knew all of this and she had a little bit of time to think about it.

"I know that's why I'm making you and Sakura a special team. Your job is simple, get Intel on the Akatsuki." Kakashi was not expecting that he didn't want to be out there protecting himself and Sakura no offense to his student. "I really don't thi-"

"That's if Sakura passes the mental tests performed by Inoichi." Kakashi open mouth close behind the mask as it sounded as if Tsunade wanted Sakura to fail the test. "Kakashi do you think Sakura is stable?"

"Well I'm no Yamanaka so I can't give you an actual answer, but in my opinion what does mentally stable mean are any of us stable? You can never recover from killing your teammate trust me, I know." Tsunade agrees, even if she wasn't the cause of Jiraiya's death, she still felt she could have stopped him from going somehow. Then again, would he even listen to her he was always going off on his own.

"I'll see what Inoichi have to say and decide from there you can go now." He didn't though he had his own question to ask.

"And who's escorting Naruto to the island?" Tsunade only had a day to think about that and she didn't have time to even do that. "I'll think of someone, maybe Gai."

Kakashi chuckles Gai would be a great choice strength wise. "Perhaps Iruka could also accompany Naruto I'm sure Iruka is going to help Naruto by talking with him." Tsunade nods deciding to go with those two.

Just when things were looking up the world decides to mess it up.

X

Sakura was finally cleared the next day and was heading home. She didn't want her parents to freak out about the cuts so she asked Shizune to bandage them. "Mom dad I'm home."

Her mother's face lights up at the sight of her only child out of the hospital. "Sakura you're back!" Mebuki hugs the pinkette tightly feeling that if she lets go Sakura will get hurt again.

"You really worried us Sakura. I knew that boy was dangerous, I hope they're not letting him live after that." Her father says through gritted teeth. Kizashi has been always a laid back and fun guy who up until now hasn't said anything about her blonde teammate. She never knew that her father held a dislike for Naruto.

"It's not his fault it's the Kyuubi's fault." That's what she wanted to say even after everything but her lips were sealed and a familiar anger was rising up again. Mebuki didn't say a word when the three sat down for breakfast she didn't even eat instead her eyes was just staring at Sakura. More specifically the bandage covered scars.

Sakura felt out of place like coming home caused a sudden awkwardness. No longer able to take the silence and her mother's staring, she stands and walks towards the door. "Sakura where are you going?"

"I have to meet with Ino's father." With that she leaves. It was odd walking down the dirt road to Ino's place everywhere she looked the villagers were smiling. The weird thing was they were smiling at her like she did the best thing this village could ask for. In a way she did with the hole Sasuke thing.

The more she pondered on why the villagers were acting strange the more she wanted to just run away. It was cowardice and that's not what a ninja does, but could she really call herself a ninja. Yeah she had book smarts, but what about the other attributes to being a ninja. That's what she wanted Kakashi to train her own.

Her thoughts were cut off when she reached the front door to the Yamanaka household. After a couple of knocks, the door was opened by Ino's mother. "Ah Sakura you must be here to see my husband." The woman smiles and let's her in. "I'm afraid Ino isn't here she's watching the shop today." Sakura was relieved that Ino wasn't here the last thing she needed was Ino trying to convince her otherwise. "Are you hungry?" Sakura shakes her head, she lost her appetite a long time ago.

"I'm just assuming here, but did you and Ino get into a fight yesterday?"

"Y-yeah how did you know?" The woman chuckles as if the question was funny or something.

"I'm her mother, I know when something's up with her the hard part is getting her to tell me why." Sakura sighs, knowing she would have to explain to Ino's mother what happened.

"I told Ino I want to leave the village unfortunately I need a mental test to do that." The lady nods understanding the situation quite well.

"I see Ino probably feels like you're abandoning her even if you don't feel like that she does." Sakura scoffs she might not even be going anywhere is she fail her test. Before she could respond, the person she came to see walk down the stairs.

"Good morning Sakura I'll be right with you in a minute just getting some things ready for us." After chatting with the woman of the house for a few more minutes Inoichi was finally ready for her. He took her to the back of their house. If there was ever a time she felt at peace it was now. Flowers were growing all over the place there was a crystal clear pond with fish even scented candles was out there. She took a seat on the bench while observing her surroundings.

When her and Ino were little they were always told not to play in the backyard and now she knew why. It must have taken years to get the place looking so serene. "This is where we'll start the test. I've been working on a new technique just for you where I'll guide you through your mind with my voice instead of having a projection of myself there."

Sakura leaves the bench in favor of the fresh green grass. "I want you to sit how I'm sitting in a meditative position." She does as he say and watches him closely.

"Next close your eyes and only listen to the sound of my voice. Clear your mind of all your worries. Your thoughts will only burden you." Sakura shut her eyes and attempts to clear her mind. Easy said than done.

"Take deep breaths." She didn't know whether he was being her psychologist or testing her mentality. She takes a deep breath as she feels her muscles slowly unwind. "Now I'm going to do the jutsu so make sure your mind is clear." Inoichi does the jutsu with the same hand signs as the mind transfer except one sign.

"You can open your eyes now." She does and to her surprise, she was no long in the backyard of the Yamanaka household. She was surrounded by a lot of doors in a flickering hallway. "Find the largest door that's where we'll be heading." The pinkette nods and wanders around for a few minutes until she finds a violet double doors to what she wasn't sure. Slowly she pushes the door open and falls out of it to hard ground. The door she came through disappear to her surprise.

She observes her surroundings and it wasn't a pretty sight. Wilted flowers were all around her and a single cherry blossom tree up on a hill was the only source of life around. Then again, even the tree looks almost dead. "This Sakura is your mindscape." She looks around for Inoichi until she remembered that the jutsu only allowed his voice to be there.

"Why is it so... Dead."

"Your mindscape represents how you feel. By the looks of things you're definitely not happy." Sakura picks up a wilted flower and watch as it crumbles in her hand.

"What does this have to do with testing my mentality?"

"Simple in every mind there's a mindscape and in every mindscape there's one thing that sticks out and it's like the thing that controls everything dealing with the mind. In your case it's that cherry blossom tree. That cherry blossom tree represents all of your experiences all of your perceptions, sensations, dreams, thoughts and feelings." Sakura stared at the tree and walked closer to it.

"And what do you want me to do?" She could hear thunder in the distance and felt a drop of rain hit her skin. It was getting ready to storm.

"Sakura do you know what happens to trees in the fall?" Sakura nods, everyone knew that so then why did Inoichi ask her such a simple question?

"And what happens to trees when it storms?"

"All of it's leaves and flowers fall off due to the rain and wind." Inoichi lets her think about what she just said before connecting the dots.

"That tree is barely hanging on with the few blossoms it has left. I want you to stop the storm and regrow that tree and if you fail, then you will be deemed as mentally unstable."

"How the hell do I do that?!" She was getting frustrated at such an impossible task.

"The storm is all of your worries coming to scrape this place clean and that would be bad. Think and you will find your answer just look deep within yourself." Inoichi's voice fades away, leaving her alone with her thoughts and a storm brewing on the horizon.

"What do I do?"

X

Inoichi opens his eyes and stares at Sakura's scrunched up face. Once Sakura finishes the task or fails, it then she will wake up. "Inoichi how did it go?"

He doesn't respond to his wife until she walks closer to the duo. "A storm is coming even if she completes this task today I can tell that a much bigger storm is coming."

"Poor child so young yet very conflicted." Inoichi agreed that was just simply the life of a Shinobi nothing can prepare you for it.

"I have faith in her that she'll be able to come out victorious."

"So do I." The two watched Sakura closely studying every bit of detail.

"Isn't this your first time trying this jutsu." Inoichi nervously coughs into his hand.

"All that matters is that it works, it took years to develop this jutsu ever since Ino told me about the other Sakura in her head." She shakes her head giving Inoichi a disapproving look.

"Though it concerns me that while in there we didn't encounter the other Sakura at all." Inoichi just hoped that what ever happened to that Sakura it wouldn't affect Sakura's test.

X

Naruto stood in a room with Gai-sensei and Iruka-sensei on both of his sides. He was woken up out of his restless sleep to come to the Hokage office. He was hoping that it was a mission since being cooped up in the village was not helping.

"Naruto as you may know the council wasn't going to let what you did slide by even if you did save the village from Pein. I almost didn't come up with a way to get you out of imprisonment or worse death. Humans fear what they don't know and the council don't know what happened with you. I was fortunate enough to find another way to save you which is where Gai and Iruka comes in." Tsunade toss a scroll to Iruka to read over before continuing.

"The Raikage wants you to train with the container of the Hachibi to be able to control the Kyuubi. Gai and Iruka, you two will escort Naruto to an island the directions are on the scroll. I want you to leave next week, but for now make sure you're prepared. Dismissed." Iruka and Gai leaves with no further questions as Naruto stood there gaping.

"You're sending me off?" Tsunade sighs she thought he would be happy getting away from the village for a while. Guess not.

"I have no say in the matter Naruto I can only make the punishment easier. This is a golden opportunity you can get away from the village for awhile and train to control the Kyuubi. Consider yourself lucky." She goes back to her paperwork as if he wasn't just standing in front of her.

"I get it you're mad at me for what I did to...her bu-"

"I'm not mad, just disappointed if anyone deserves to be mad it's Sakura and trust me she is." Naruto flinches when she mentioned her name before him. "I don't know if she'll ever be the same after what you did." He of course felt guilty, but a part of him also didn't feel that way at all. Perhaps it was part of himself he locked away for a long time to appear happy.

"Do you think I'll be able to control the Kyuubi?"

"I do. You just need to believe in yourself." Naruto takes in her words and asked himself did he believe in himself.

"I-"

"Hokage-sama Moegi woke up!" Tsunade shoots up from her desk ready to find out what attacked them and where Ebisu go? Before leaving completely she turns her attention to the surprised blonde.

"Walk with me, I feel this is something you need to hear." Naruto nods and follows behind the blonde busty woman.

X

**I completely made up the whole mindscape thing I'm not sure if that's correct about a mindscape or not, but it felt that it was what was needed to heal Sakura. With the whole mind transfer jutsu I made the mind transfer voice jutsu since Sakura's Inner is able to push out the projection of the user so what about the voice?**

**I have a couple of thoughts on how I want to do Sakura's sage mode, but I'm interested to hear what you guys think about it.**

**Next chapter we'll find out what happened to team Ebisu. And more of Sakura's mental battle.**


	11. Chapter 11

Naruto

**Chapter 10: Farewell **

"I'll never see them again. I know that. And they know that. And knowing this, we say farewell."

-Haruki Murakami

Sakura's hair stuck to her face and neck as the rain came down harder and harder. She didn't know what to do and wished she had a little bit of help at least. She stepped up closer to the tree and slowly reached out to touch the trunk.

The bark on the trunk was oddly smooth feeling and she could feel deep sadness coming from the tree. It's a strange thought but this feels as if she's having a mid-life crisis a bit early. "What do I do?" She asked herself for the thousandth time since being left alone.

Sakura watched sadly as more Sakura petals fell from one particularly strong wind. If she wanted to get anything done then she would need to focus and think.

She sat back down on the muddy ground and went in the same pose that she and Inoichi did to get where she was now. She took a deep breath feeling her muscles unwind as her surroundings slowed.

It was strange the rain no longer pelted her and she wasn't freezing anymore. She didn't know if the storm stopped or just froze. _Would that be considered stopping the storm?_ She asked herself.

She opened her eyes and could see visible raindrops frozen in the air. She wasn't sure what happened all she did was calm her raging mind down. _Was that the key to stopping the storm and rebuilding her tree?_

**"Finally you stopped the storm." **Behind the tree came a black and white version of herself with the words inner on her forehead. For once she was happy that her Inner showed up she hasn't heard from her double since she started her training with Tsunade.

"Inner where have you been?" Her black and white twin sat down on the ground with her back against the tree. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply the smell of fresh earth assaulted her nostrils.

**"Where else? Here of course." **Her relaxed posture was quickly broken when she was shaken by the real Sakura.

"W-why didn't you stop me talk me out of killing him?!" Once again the rain fell and the storm was approaching even faster but Sakura didn't care. All she cared was knowing the answer as to why her doppelgänger didn't stop her. All the copy did was sigh as it started to rain once more.

**"I'm your deepest darkest thoughts everything that you never expressed out loud is who I am. You want to know why I didn't say anything?" **Sakura nodded tightening her grip on her shoulders.

**"Because you secretly wanted him dead. Even when you were making your way to his location you wanted him dead. Don't try to justify it as a mistake or you wanting to ease his pain. You wanted him dead so Naruto wouldn't have to suffer and keep that silly promise. You knew that the Uchiha lost his way but you couldn't break it to Naruto."** Inner started laughing as Sakura lets go from shock.

**"It's despicable really that you'd rather kill the Uchiha then tell Naruto the truth." **Her annoying laughter got louder and louder echoing throughout the field. **"The best part is that now he hates you!"**

Sakura fell to her knees her nails digging into her flesh creating tiny moons in her skin. "What happened to us?" Inner stopped laughing to look at the girl in front of her closely.

Softly she spoke, **"you stopped needing me."**

"..."

**"Look in order to stop the storm you have to come to terms with everything. I'm not saying you have to move on as if nothing's wrong but just be honest with yourself."** Inner got up and rested her forehead against Sakura's

**"Repeat after me...I meant to kill Sasuke Uchiha." **Sakura shook her head still in denial she felt that if she said those words then she would lose. _Lose what?_ She asked herself.

Again Inner repeated those words, **"I meant to kill Sasuke Uchiha."**

"I can't say those words-I-I..." Inner grabbed both of Sakura's hands.

**"I meant to kill Sasuke Uchiha." **Blank black eyes met shiny green eyes. She broke eye contact once she realized that Inner was a part of her whether she liked it or not. In a way, Sasuke was the reason why she had an Inner. Due to hiding who she really was from him, her actual thoughts formed and made a being. What was she fighting for? Why was she in denial? She threw her hands up in the air admitting defeat.

"I meant to kill Sasuke Uchiha." A bright light came through the stormy clouds that just a second ago poured down rain on them. The light vanquished the darkened world and the flowers on the ground sprung up.

**"Good now let's make new memories and grow this tree back together."** Sakura noticed that Inner's body began to look transparent. That's when it hit her that Inner was starting to fade away.

"Wh-what's going on?" Inner smiled down at her brightly the black color was fading away and was being filled with color.

**"The Uchiha was holding us back now we can become one." **Her smile turned sinister as she faded away right before her eyes. Sakura clutched her head still as confused as when she came here. Did she complete the task the storm is gone but the tree has yet to regrow?

Sakura sighed and turned away from the tree she was ready to leave and her exit was where she first entered at. One last time Sakura inhaled the fresh scent. She would probably never understand the workings of the mind and how she's able to smell the flowers. With one more look over she opened the door and walked into the bright light heading out of her mind. But what she failed to notice was the tree slowly turning black starting from the roots making its way to the trunk steadily.

X

Sakura eyes fluttered open and she took a deep breath to make sure she was where she wanted to be. "Sakura did you stop the storm?" She flashed Inoichi a grin which could only mean one thing. She did it. "I knew you could do it."

Inoichi held out a hand to help her stand up. "How do you feel?"

She thought for a moment pondering over how she felt, "free." Sakura looked up at the sky and saw the sun was now high in the sky telling her it was sometime in the noon. She didn't plan on spending most of the day in her mind but it couldn't be helped.

"Great you've been in there for quite a while I'm sure you're hungry." Ino's mother said. It was the first time she noticed the woman since leaving her mindscape not only was she standing there but also Ino herself.

"Are you still leaving?" She said sadly already knowing the answer to her own question.

"Yeah." Ino sighed and walked closer to Sakura.

"If that's going to make you happy then who am I to try and stop you." Ino hugged her best friend tightly. "Just don't end up like..."

"Don't worry I'm not." Ino didn't know how Sakura could be sure of that but she would trust her friend. And if she does turn into Sasuke she'll be there to knock some sense into the pinkette. The two pull away with content smiles on their faces.

"Sakura why don't you eat lunch with us." Ino's mother suggested after the touching moment between the two long time friends. Sakura nodded and followed the Yamanaka family back inside to eat.

X

Tsunade and Naruto quickly arrived at the hospital and immediately went to Moegi's room. They needed an explanation and they needed it now. Without knocking the Hokage barged into the hospital room. Her face was all about business.

About three nurses were making sure The Genin was comfortable and awake for the Hokage's questioning."I got it from here check up on her teammates." The nurses nodded quickly from her tone of voice and scattered like cockroaches.

"How are you feeling Moegi?" Tsunade asked the girl while reading her charts. The listed all of her symptoms one by one in her head. Broken arm, mild concussion, broken ribs, a lot of blood loss from a stab wound. How the girl was awake was beyond her.

"Tired..." Moegi would have said in pain but due to a number of painkillers they gave her she was feeling quite numb. No matter how tired she was she had to tell the Hokage everything.

"You'll be able to sleep after you give me a mission report." Naruto watched and listened closely as Moegi nodded to the agreement.

"The mission was a success we were coming back from the mission that caused all of this. Ebisu-sensei." She said sadly as tears fell from her eyes.

_Flashback_

_"That mission was way to easy for a C-rank," Konohamaru grumbled at the fact that they escorted someone yet there was no action. _

_Everyone just ignored the boy since they were use to his complaining. The mission didn't take too long since they were still in Fire country. "You should be happy that we even got a C-rank mission," Ebisu said from the front of the group which awarded him a glare._

_"Konohamaru-kun look at this mission as a preparation for future missions."_

_"It would have been more interesting if instead of the old geezer we got a beautiful princess and we had to protect her from deadly Samurai." Moegi rolled her eyes it wasn't the first time they heard their teammate go on and on about the type of mission he wanted._

_For a few more minutes the two bickered back and forth until Ebisu suddenly stopped walking. Udon was the only one who seemed to notice their sensei suddenly stop. "Ebisu-sensei?" The dark haired boy questions. His worried tone caught the attention of his other two teammates._

_Before either one could say anything their sensei quickly yelled. "Get down!" As quick as possible his students hit the deck as a barrage of kunai fly over them where their bodies previously were._

_"Is everyone alright?" His only answer was silence since they were stunned at what just happened. "Be alert." His students nodded with determined looks._

_Slowly and cautiously everyone stood up their eyes wide open looking for any sign of their attackers. "There!" Moegi shouted pointing to a masked person in the trees._

_"That mask..." Before they could think about it any longer the mysterious stranger was going through hand seals at breakneck speed._

_"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu." A big ball of blistering flames was headed towards them and left so little time to react. Luckily everyone dodged just in time but wasn't completely unscathed._

_Moegi was in awe at the size of the fireball but that was the least of their concerns since the ball of fire was causing a forest fire. "Ebisu-sensei why are they attacking us?"_

_Unfortunately, Ebisu didn't have an answer he was just as confused as his students. "I'm not sure but just be careful we can't fight them." Everyone nodded despite their fears their eyes shone with determination. He was a proud sensei._

_"Formation E." His team once again nodded as they got into formation. Udon started off by setting up trip wires as fast as possible while Konohamaru distracted the masked man with clones. The key to formation E is to trap their enemy or enemies so Ebisu could quickly finish them off. _

_Unfortunately, it didn't go exactly like that after Moegi sets up the paper bombs they were instead somehow able to pinpoint the location of them all and use them against the team. _

_Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the paper float by her as she just left the spot she put the paper bomb. Moegi didn't understand how it was able to follow her. Sadly she didn't have much time to think or duck for cover since it detonated right then and there. The force of the blast sent her body flying through a tree head first knocking her out._

_Flashback interrupted_

"I'm sorry but I'm unaware of what happened while I was out but when I awoke-"

_Flashback_

_Groaning Moegi woke to familiar black eyes staring at her with concern. "K-Konohamaru-kun?" Her vision was slowly getting clearer but she wished it didn't from what she saw._

_"A-are y-you ok -M-Mo-Moegi?" Her own eyes widened with disbelief as she looked up at her teammate. A look of horror took over her features when he coughed up blood on her shirt. _

_Faintly she could hear metal clash against metal but all she could focus on was the boy who was suffering before her. "Th-they tried to k-kill you." Did he protect me?_

_She looked down at his torso which had a nasty long cut that looked purplish. "Konohamaru Moegi Ebisu-sensei has ordered me to get you two out of here." Moegi shifted her gaze to the left where her other teammate stood with his own wounds._

_"We can't leave. We have to help Ebisu-sensei." He kept repeating while looking down at the forest floor. Trying not to succumb to the pain._

_"Konoh-"_

_"No! Did you forget what Naruto-nii-san taught us about leaving our comrades behind? I refuse to let him down." With some difficulty, he stood shakily on his two feet. "If you want to be lower than scum by all means __**leave**__ but I refuse to leave without Ebisu-sensei."_

_They were awestruck Konohamaru was literally hanging on by a little piece of string and he was thinking he was going to save Ebisu-sensei. "But y-you w-were poisoned."_

_"I don't care! I'll die before I leave behind our sensei!" Moegi suddenly stood up hearing that Konohamaru was somehow poisoned. _

_"What!? How!?" No one responded to her question. "Answer me!?"_

_"Konohamaru had to take down another ninja and in the process got poisoned." Moegi and Udon caught Konohamaru before he could fall and make his wounds worst. _

_"Although my mind is telling me to flee and never look back my heart is telling me to stay and fight with Ebisu-sensei." Udon looked back and forth between his other two teammates and silently made a decision._

_"I agree we got to help Ebisu-sensei. Konohamaru you have to sit and relax or you'll...die." Konohamaru nodded as his two teammates gently set him against a tree to rest. He had full faith in them that they'll return back with Ebisu-sensei._

_He was wrong._

Flashback end

"We noticed the fighting had stopped and that Ebisu-sensei was on his knees in front of the masked man." She tried to wipe her tears but it was an endless flow. The horror scene that was before her would forever haunt her.

"Ebisu-sensei's legs were broken so he couldn't move he saw us before the masked man did. His last words were _run. _Before he was blasted in the chest leaving a gaping hole. We just barely got away but not without some injuries. H-how is Udon and Konohamaru-kun?"

Naruto was also curious since Tsunade didn't tell him. "The poison was safely extracted thanks to Sakura and Udon was healed up good." Naruto flinched when she said **that** name.

"Moegi one more question." She could tell that the pills were kicking in and if she didn't ask her question then. Well let's just say 5 bottles of Sake wouldn't let her forget it.

"What did these masks look like?" It took the girl a moment to process her question but she did answer.

"ANBU." She slurred drifting off.

"Rest Moegi." As if that was the magic word she was asleep hopefully in a dreamless sleep.

"What the hell is going on?"

**Xxx**

**This took way to long to do because I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the Flashback. I didn't want to dwell on the fighting because they barely have any attacks. I wasn't in the mood to make up some jutsu. So RIP Ebisu but who are people in the masks?**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 11: Tag You're It 1 **

"I guess what scares me the most now is the thought that I won't be able to protect you."

-Julia Hoban

This would be her last attempt at trying to get Sakura and Naruto back on speaking term. It's been a week since Sakura has been declared mentally stable and a week since the attack that cost Ebisu his life. Both Udon and Moegi were awake and are going through rehabilitation. Konohamaru wasn't so lucky the young genin was currently in a coma due to the poison attacking his brain. They had no way of knowing that the poison would attack the brain no matter where it entered the body from. On the bright side, his teammates and Naruto haven't left his side unless forced to.

Tsunade sighed and sat back in her chair to look up at the ceiling. "Tomorrow morning." That would be the day where she sends Sakura and Naruto off on their own personal mission. She figured that by making them both leave at the same time that will force them to say something to each other. Then again she could see the plan blowing up in her face.

A knock at the door took her out of her musing. "Enter."

Shizune popped up with a box and an excited expression on her face. Tsunade raised an eyebrow at how happy she was. "It's done."

"Uh, what's done?" She didn't order Shizune to do anything just yet unless she forgot due to everything else going on.

"The new uniform for our very first special team." Shizune sounded a bit overly excited and what new uniform was Shizune talking about?

"What new uniform?" Shizune sets the box on her desk and took out the outfits.

"I overheard you mention to Kakashi about him and Sakura being our very first special team. So I took it upon myself to make them a new outfit." Tsunade wasn't sure whether to be surprised or curious.

"Well, what do you think?" The outfit was definitely a huge step up from the usual jounin outfit.

The new outfit that Shizune designed still had the usual flak jacket but instead of it being green it was black with a different shape to it. The flak jacket covered the torso and lower groin that came with clipped-on shoulder pads with high-collars and a strap across the waist. The traditional Uzushiogakure symbol was no longer present on the back of the flak jackets, but was instead emblazoned onto a red armband. That seemed to be the only change to the usual jounin outfit. The only thing different about the pants was the darker color. Also, the sandals were higher then the usual pair.

Tsunade had to admit she was impressed by the outfits and couldn't wait to see how it look on Sakura and Kakashi. "Shizune you're a genius. What made you come up with a new outfit for the special team?"

She just plainly shrugged it was a mission about gathering intel wearing the usual green vest would automatically associate them with Konoha. "I figured that since we have a new division we could give them their own outfit."

Tsunade was only half listening since she was admiring the material. "Do you think you could have three more made before tomorrow morning?"

Shizune looked up at her surprised she wasn't expecting such a request like that from Tsunade. "T-Tsunade-sama it took about a week just to make one for Sakura and Kakashi. Why do you need three more anyway?"

"One is for Sakura and Kakashi knowing those two they'll probably get in some trouble and mess up their outfit. I also want to give Naruto one I figured it'll motivate him to master the Kyuubi's power and come back and join his team." Shizune looked at the outfits laid on the desk in deep thought. She could try but that meant she would lose all of her sleep.

"Shizune if you need help I'll be happy to assign some people to you."

"No no I'll do it what time by tomorrow morning?" Tsunade smiled proudly she was honestly admiring how good the new outfit came out.

"6 but don't try to make that deadline since Kakashi will be there you'll have an extra two hours." Shizune nodded quickly before rushing out of the office to start the three other outfits.

Tsunade folded the gear back in the box and set it under her desk. She would give it to them later on that day. She wondered what her student was doing at the moment.

X

Sakura panted from the strenuous spar session she just had with her sensei. They decided to start early on the training instead of waiting to leave the village.

It was their fourth day sparring much to her frustration she wanted to learn jutsus not be sore for the rest of the day. She sighed and sat down on the ground while staring up at the sky. A few clouds pass by calming her rising irritation.

She could see why Shikamaru enjoyed it so much. It was relaxing. Unfortunately, that relaxing mood was ruined by the voice of her closet-perv sensei. "Before tomorrow I want you to go by Gai and get some weights. I've already informed him that you'll be coming by for them."

"So he's going to just give me them no questions asked?" Kakashi smirked behind his mask as she asked a question she already knew the answer to.

"If you tag Gai before we leave then he'll give you the weights...if you don't we're not leaving the village." His serious tone and words made her look at him with shock.

"Are you kidding me Gai-sensei is like the fastest person in this whole village!" Still, he didn't waver once so ever in his decision she was starting to think letting him train her was a bad idea.

"Use any means necessary this is part of your training." With that, he was gone only god knows where leaving a livid pinkette behind. Nonetheless, she started thinking of ways she could tag Gai-sensei. First, she wanted to see how fast he would run away from her.

Sakura got up and went searching for Team Gai who she hasn't seen in quite some time. Then again the only people she saw on a daily basis nowadays was Kakashi, Ino, Ino's parents, and her parents no choice there. She gently touched the bandages on her face wondering how they'll react to the scars. That same event haunted her every waken hour and when she's sleep. She doesn't know if she'll ever be able to forgive him or he'll ever be able to forgive her.

Sakura sighed she had no idea where Team Gai even was the only place she had in mind was the training grounds. She was cursing Kakashi using every word in the book as she trudged to other training grounds in search of Team Gai.

It was a stroke of luck that she didn't spend all of her time searching for them. "Sakura-san our youthful blossom!" She inwardly groaned almost forgetting Lee's crush on her.

"Hey, guys is Gai-sensei around?" She hated the look of pity they had on their face and could feel her face heat from their gaze being on her bandaged scars.

"Sakura..." she already knew what came next. The words of encouragement.

"Can we see it!" Sakura looked at Tenten with surprise since that was the last thing she was expecting to be asked. Even Tenten herself looked surprised at her own words.

For the first time in a while, a genuine smile spread on her face. Finally, someone wasn't walking on eggshells around her. It made her feel like she was human and not some kind of freak show that everyone pitied.

"I mean that came out wrong I'm sorry Sakura." Tenten tried to apologize but Sakura wasn't having it.

"I guess I can show you guys the scars it's no big deal." Sakura peeled the bandages back to reveal the scars to Team Gai.

They eyed it closely making her feel slightly uncomfortable.

"You look like a badass with those scars." Tenten grinned brightly as Neji smirked from beside her agreeing with a nod.

"Agreed that scar is very youthful!" Lee shouted giving her a thumbs up with tears in his eyes.

"Thanks, guys that actually made me feel better but have any of you seen Gai-sensei?" She was once again back to seriousness on her current task.

"No, he even missed our training session which is so unlike Gai-sensei."

"Indeed what do you need to see Gai-sensei about?" Neji asked.

"I'm supposed to tag him before I leave tomorrow morning for my weights according to Kakashi-sensei." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at such an impossible task.

"Good luck with that," Tenten said feeling a bit sorry for the pinkette for such a difficult objective.

"I'll help you find Gai-sensei Sakura-san." Sakura gave Lee an appreciative look. She would need all the help she could get.

"Are you sure I don't want to interrupt your training?" She knew that Lee would probably drop everything and do as she asked it was in his nature to help others. That's a dangerous trait to have.

"Of course Sakura-san this will be like training." He flashed her a bright grin that damn near blinded her.

"O-ok thanks." She covered her eyes trying to not get blinded by how bright his smile was.

"We'll also help you Sakura this should actually be entertaining." Sakura smiled at Tenten's kind offer. She would have all the help she needed.

"Great! We should spilt up and search for him I'll make a shadow clone for everyone so if any group finds him you guys just take out the shadow clone and I'll know his location."

"Yosh great idea Sakura-san!"

"Sakura I'm assuming Gai-sensei isn't just going to let you tag him so what do you plan to do?" Sakura turned her attention to the usually stoic Hyuga who was waiting for an answer.

"I want to test his speed first before I do anything else." The Hyuga looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it.

"We should regroup back here before the sun goes down." Sakura agreed to Tenten's idea. Before performing the jutsu she put the bandage back over her scars.

"Kage than no jutsu." 3 clones of Sakura appeared and everyone finally took off in different directions. They were ready to find Gai and help Sakura out.

Meanwhile Gai-sensei was in the trees with a familiar sharingan sensei. "Are you sure about this my eternal rival?"

Kakashi for once was not reading his pervy book but watching his student closely. He could see that her social skills were slowly coming back to the way it was before the fallout. He had to admit he wasn't expecting Team Gai to help her with the task.

He was expecting her to fail since this was his last ditch effort to save her life. But with the help of Team Gai he didn't know what to expect anymore. "Just make sure she doesn't catch you." With that Gai was gone in a blink of an eye.

Kakashi sighed wearily. "Now to check up on my other student.

X

It was rare to see Naruto not in the hospital beside Konohamaru's bedside. But since he only had today to pack he decided to see the comatose boy later. He was going to train hard and tame the Kyuubi so he can protect his friends from those traitor Anbu.

His eyes automatically went to the pictures of old Team 7 and new Team 7. His eyes lingered on the pinkette much longer then he would have liked. He wouldn't admit it to anyone but he missed her and he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't still have feelings for her.

He laughed bitterly at his thoughts. Even after everything he still fucking loved her.

It was a good thing that he was leaving so he could not only control the Kyuubi but also get his thoughts straight.

"Yo." Naruto turned towards his window to find his sensei crouched there with what he presume a smile on his masked face.

"Kakashi-sensei what are you doing here?" Naruto hasn't seen Kakashi all week.

Kakashi shrugged, "just wanted to visit before you leave tomorrow."

Naruto nodded and continued packing in silence. "Naruto whatever happens everyone in Konoha believes in you. You've come far you even completed the rasengan."

"Which I'm unable to use." Kakashi sighed he wasn't use to Naruto being so negative. He didn't know how to talk to him especially when he got like this.

"What do you plan to do once you come back?" Naruto paused in his packing for a moment thinking deeply about what he wanted to do.

"Akatsuki is still out there and I won't rest until every single last one of them are either dead or behind bars." Kakashi nodded he accepted that answer and thought that maybe he would join the team on finding Akatsuki later on.

"Well, whenever you're ready to do just that don't hesitate to find me. See you around Naruto." Although it was small and almost nonexistent there was a smile there and Kakashi took it.

**Whoop the last chapter of 2k16 I can't wait for 2k17 the year I'll be graduating.**

**The outfits are the new generation Jounin outfit but in this story, it hasn't been bought out like that yet. I needed a reason to change the Jounin outfit and I have it. Next chapter is all about the game of tag and team 7 leaving Konoha. Hopefully, to kick off 2k17 I'll have a 3k word chapter for you guys.**


End file.
